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A GENERAL SKETCH OF 

POLITICAL HISTORY 

From the Earliest Times 



BY 



ARTHUR D. INNES 

w 

SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD 

AUTHOR OF 'SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND,' 'ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS, 

' BRITAIN AND HER RIVALS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY,' 

' A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BRITISH IN INDIA,' ETC. 



RIVINGTONS 

34 KING STREET, COVE NT GARDEN 

LONDON 

i 9 1 1 



>' 






7/' 






PREFACE 

HISTORY is apt to present itself, not only to the youthful 
mind, as a haphazard collection of events grouped round 
a few interesting personalities, the groups of events being 
unconnected. A stage in advance of this is reached when 
we realise that English or Roman or Greek history is the 
story of the progress of a nation in which interesting 
personalities play only a part. At a third stage we dis- 
cover that all history is the story of the progress of the 
human race, in which individual nations play only a part ; 
that the separate histories are not isolated, but act on and 
are acted on by others ; that the history of one period is 
the outcome of the preceding ages, as the history of the 
future will be the outcome of the history of the present. 
This conception of the unity of history as a whole is 
needful to the right understanding of our own or any 
other specific history ; and an acquaintance, sound so far 
as it goes, with the ground plan of general history is 
exceedingly helpful to the conception. The aim of this 
work is to present such a ground-plan ( sound so far as it 
goes/ which may enlarge the horizon of the student with- 
out such a multiplication of details as will 'prevent him 
from seeing the wood for the trees.' 

A. D. I. 
Gerrard's Cross. Nov. 1910. 



CONTENTS 

BOOK I 
EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES : TO 500 B.C. 

CHAP. PAGE 

I. PREHISTORIC HISTORY ..... 3 

II. THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC EMPIRES. . 12 

III. THE ARYAN MIGRATIONS : RISE OF THE HELLENES 

AND OF PERSIA ...... 27 

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS . . . .40 



BOOK II 

THE GLORY OF GREECE AND THE RISE OF ROME: 

TO 200 B.C. 

IV. ATHENS AND SPARTA ..... 46 

V. THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT . . 62 

VI. THE RISE OF ROME ..... 70 

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. . . . .88 



BOOK III 
THE ROMAN DOMINION : to 476 a.d. 

VII. THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINION . . 93 

VIII. THE ROMAN EMPIRE . . ... . 109 

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS . . . 1 24 



BOOK I 
EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 



CHAPTER I 

PREHISTORIC HISTORY 

The history of man begins in one sense at the time when he 

first left intentional records of his doings. But in another sense 

mankind had a history before man began to leave 

a record. This is what we mean by the phrase 

' Prehistoric History ' — the history of what was going on before 

history was written down. 

Prehistoric history, then, starts from the very earliest time 
when men existed on this planet. Man is the only creature 
that has learnt to make tools, to make use of fire, The First 
and to employ articulate speech. We know that Men - 
there were men on earth so long ago as before the last Glacial 
Period, when the northern half of Europe was a great ice-field ; but 
we do not know how many tens of thousands of years may have 
passed since that time. It is not until w r e get down to somewhere 
about ten thousand years ago that we have traces of communities 
which remained in existence generation after generation continu- 
ously down to the time when they began to leave conscious 
records of their actions. 

This first trace of a continuous community is found in the 
valley of the Nile; and probably about two or three thousand 
years later come the second traces of a continuous community in 
the valley of the Euphrates. Both had begun to be recorded 
somewhere about six thousand years ago ; that is The First 
to say, before the year 4000 B.C. Both, before that Records, 
time, had reached an advanced stage of civilisation ; that is, they 
had an ordered system of government, and had acquired a great 
deal of knowledge and engineering skill. 

3 



4 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

But ages before these two civilisations, which are generally 
called the Egyptian and the Akkadian or Sumerian, had come 
into existence, Man had spread over the globe. At present 
nobody knows in what part of the world Man first appeared, 
2. The Races though most people are still inclined to think that 
of Mankind. the cradle of the human race was somewhere in 
Central Asia. But wherever Man spread from we are pretty sure 
of this : in the hottest parts of the world, at any rate of our 
Eastern Hemisphere, there were races with black skins and black 
hair who are referred to as negroes, or negroid. In the regions 
not quite so hot there were races who were not quite so dark, with 
brown, or red-brown, or yellowish skins. To a group of these in 
Northern Africa is given the name of Hamitic, because they were 
supposed to be descended from Ham, the son of Noah. The 
peoples who were spread over Europe and Asia are generally classed 
indiscriminately as Mongolians. The Egyptians belonged to 
the Hamitic group and the Akkadians to the Mongolian 
group. 

A long time after both the Egyptian and Akkadian civilisations 
had been well established, two new groups of races appeared 
The Caii- which are both sometimes classed under the name 

casian Races. Caucasian. That name was given when it was 
supposed that both of them came at different times out of the 
regions where the Caucasian mountains are, on the east of the 
Black Sea. Also they are classed together because, although 
their languages were very unlike each other, they had some 
common characteristics which are not found in the languages 
of any other races. The first of these two groups is called 
the Semitic, from Noah's son Shem. The second group is 
sometimes called Japhetic after Japhet ; more often it is called 
Indo-European, because the races which belonged to it made 
themselves masters of India and Europe ; but the commonest 
name for it is Aryan, because the branch which left the earliest 
records of itself called itself by that name. 

It is probable that before the first appearance of the Semites, 
between the years 3000 and 4000 B.C., there was another 
Mongolian civilisation beginning in the Far East to which China 
and Japan owe their origin. 



PREHISTORIC HISTORY 5 

The Semites appear to have grown up first of all in Arabia, 
and thence to have spread themselves over Western Asia in a 
succession of invasions. They came into direct Semites and 
contact with the two great civilisations which were -^y 9 - 118 - 
already in existence, and they did not spread beyond Western 
Asia. Where the Aryans started from we do not know for certain. 
But for a long time they did not come into contact with the older 
civilisations at all. They appear to have had their cradle some- 
where further towards the north, and to have migrated in great 
waves first south-eastwards through Afghanistan into India, on 
the east of the Akkadians and Semites. In a second series of 
migrations they spread all over Europe without striking into 
Western Asia. Here we come across an interesting problem. 
During the second millennium, or period of one thousand years, 
before the Christian Era, that is between 2000 and 1000 B.C., 
there were highly civilised peoples in Asia Minor, in the Islands 
of the Mediterranean, in the Grecian peninsula, and in Italy. 
But we can find out so little about their languages that no one 
quite knows whether they were Mongolian, or Hamitic, or partly 
Semitic, or partly Aryan. 

Without either affirming or denying that these peoples represent 
a comparatively early Aryan migration, we can make some 
tolerably definite statements about the movements Asiatic 
of the Aryan peoples which were going on during the Ar y ans - 
long centuries when great powers were flourishing in Western Asia 
and Egypt. Probably it was during the third millennium that 
their great hosts fought their way through the mountains into 
the plains of Northern India. 

Either a large number of them turned aside into Persia, or else 
Persia was occupied later by a separate migrating body ; for there 
was certainly a close connection in the language and the religious 
ideas of the Aryans of India and of Persia. 

The Aryans who migrated across Europe are divided into 
groups chiefly according to their languages. All the Aryan lan- 
guages are akin ; that is to say we can be sure that they originally 
arose out of one common language. That of the Indian Aryans, 
called Sanskrit, must have departed less from the original than 
any of the others. 



6 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

Of the European Aryans, the first great group is that of the 
Celts, who went steadily westward. The Celtic languages fall into 
two divisions so distinct that we must recognise two separate 
European Celtic waves. They went steadily west, not stopping 
Aryans. to turn south into the Greek or Italian Penin- 

sulas, until the Atlantic Ocean stopped them, and they broke 
northward into the British Isles and southward into Spain. 
Although they migrated at an early stage there are no records of 
their history until at a much later date, when they came into 
collision with states which had grown up in the meanwhile in the 
lands of the Mediterranean Sea. 

Next we are concerned with the great group which parted 
into two divisions generally called the Hellenic or Greek and 
the Italian or Latin. These two divisions, when they estab- 
lished themselves in the Greek and Italian Peninsulas, roughly 
speaking between 1500 and 1000 B.C., soon acquired a high 
civilisation ; but the civilised Hellenes and Latins were not at 
all inclined to recognise their relationship to the tribes of their 
kinsmen who remained in wilder regions and clung to a wilder life. 

The third great group is the Teutonic, which in course of time 
spread itself over Germany and Scandinavia, but did not come 
into collision with its southern neighbours till about one hundred 
years before the Christian Era. The last great group is that of 
the Slavs, who ultimately peopled the greater part of Eastern 
Europe. Perhaps this is the same group of whom we hear in the 
course of Greek and Roman history under the names of Scythians, 
Sarmatians, and Cimmerians. 

Now how did these peoples come to be formed? Primitive 
man, man in the first few thousand years of his existence, was 
3. Primitive ver >' much like any other wild beast ; only, he had 
Man - more intelligence. He found that he could make 

fire serve him. He found out that he could make things, and that 
he could throw things : and thereupon he began to use weapons 
wherewith to fight other beasts and other men. Also he made 
other tools in the same way that he had made weapons, out of stone 
and bone and wood. He kept himself alive by eating the fruits of 
the earth, and by killing beasts or birds or fishes when he had 
found out how to do so. He found out that he could use some 



PREHISTORIC HISTORY 7 

of the beasts by taming and breeding them, and that he could 
make food grow out of the ground instead of having to hunt 
about to find where it was growing already. And he went on 
finding out that he could make improvements in his weapons and 
tools. At last a time came when he found out that he could 
make use of copper and harden it into bronze ; and when once 
he had learnt the use of metals, his advance went on much 
quicker. This progress became most marked when he had found 
out how to use iron. A tribe armed with iron weapons found it 
easy to conquer those who had nothing better to fight with than 
bronze or bones or stones. 

But man cannot be called primitive man at all when he had 
got on so far as to use metal. Primitive man hunted and 
fished and fought with primitive weapons, and 4. Growth of 
perhaps scraped the soil with a primitive hoe. Communities. 
From the earliest times about which anything is known men 
were living in groups : not in single separate families, but in com- 
munities of people, who supposed themselves all to be descended 
from some common ancestor. 

The tribes moved about from place to place to find new hunt- 
ing-ground or to steal the hunting-ground of another tribe which 
was weaker than their own ; or to escape the attacks of another 
tribe which was stronger. When they began to breed sheep and 
cattle for the sake of meat and wool and hides and milk, they 
moved their flocks and herds with them. This is what is called 
the nomadic or wandering stage. Then it was not so much to 
find new hunting-ground as to find new pasture that they kept on 
moving. Of course they fought with other tribes, making slaves 
of those of the conquered enemy whom they did not kill ; and 
sometimes they made friendship and alliance with other tribes 
whom they agreed to regard as brothers. 

But if they found themselves in particularly fertile land, they 
would be inclined to settle down and make the most of the soil. 
When this happened the community, that is the settling 
tribe or collection of tribes, became agriculturists ; down, 
they were in what is called the agricultural stage. But when they 
had settled down they set about trying to make themselves more 
comfortable ; to make better shelters to sleep in, more convenient 



8 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

garments, and handier utensils. The more improvements they 
made the more they wanted ; and they found that a great deal of 
labour was saved by every man doing the things that he could do 
best, leaving other men to do the things that they could do best, 
and exchanging the things that they had made but did not want 
for themselves for other things which they wanted and their 
neighbours had made but did not want. Division of labour in a 
community made progress much more rapid. 

As communities settled down they found that much more was 
to be got out of making bargains for mutual advantage with other 
communities than by fighting. So arose commerce or exchange 
between different communities, which corresponded very much to 
Customs and division of labour within each community. At a 
Laws. very early stage, long before there had been any 

settling down, every tribe had got habits or customs of its own 
which the members were obliged to obey. The bigger the com- 
munity grew the more necessary it became for rules to be fixed 
which the whole community was bound to obey ; all the more so 
when different tribes joined together whose customs varied. 

When large communities settled down together, all agreeing to 
be bound by the same laws, they formed a state. Naturally the 
first large communities which settled permanently did so in the 
places which were the most fertile, and where it was easiest to 
keep up a friendly intercourse with neighbour communities. That 
is why the first states are found in the two great river basins of 
the Nile and the Euphrates. 

The states would settle down under an ordered government. 

In all early states there was a ruling class and a slave class, 

the descendants respectively of conquering and con - 

quered tribes. As soon as there is anything to 

show what sort of government was in existence, we find a 

king. 

But we cannot say with any certainty that kingship always 
grew up in the same way. What does seem certain is that no 
tribes or communities were ever sufficiently organised to form 
themselves into a permanent State until they had arrived at some 
kind of a monarchy. 

When we pass from this account of a prehistoric society, we 



PREHISTORIC HISTORY 9 

shall find ourselves dealing with the early civilisations of Egypt 
and the Euphrates valley ; and following upon these the Semitic or 
partly Semitic Empires in the same regions ; that pi rs t chapters 
is to say, in Egypt and in Asia west of the Persian of History. 
Gulf. Until somewhere about 2000 B.C. the record is meagre. 
At about this time the record of the Hebrew people, a Semitic 
race, begins with Abraham; and the records become fuller both 
for Egypt and for Mesopotamia, the land lying between the rivers 
Euphrates and Tigris. 

We shall see all these empires finally absorbed in that of Persia 
in the sixth century B.C. We shall glance also at the establish- 
ment of the Aryan dominion in India, and the development of 
the pre-Hellenic and Hellenic civilisations on the Eastern 
Mediterranean. From that time we may consider ourselves as 
being in the full light of history deliberately recorded in a literary 
form. 




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CHAPTER II 

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC EMPIRES 

Fifty years ago what we knew about the ancient empires, before 
Greece and Rome became great, was derived almost entirely 
from the Hebrew scriptures and from records compiled after the 
i. The year 500 B.C. But during the last fifty years a 

Records. number of ancient monuments and tombs have 

been excavated, revealing ancient inscriptions ; and much pro- 
gress has been made in the art of deciphering these records. 
Besides these actual graven records, the excavations have pro- 
vided an immense amount of material from which archaeologists 
are able to draw conclusions; sometimes with certainty, but 
sometimes only in the nature of plausible guesses, which cannot 
be wholly relied on without further evidence. Still, every year 
produces something fresh. Two generations have added greatly 
to our knowledge, and we are on the way to learn much more. 
On the whole it is rather surprising to find how far the new 
evidence confirms the old authorities. 

As concerns Egypt, the main authorities were the legends 
collected by the Greek Herodotus in the fifth century B.C., and 
2. Egypt: the tables of the learned Egyptian Manetho com- 
Manetho. piled f rom the priests' records at a later date. 
These begin Egyptian history with Menes, the first king of all 
Egypt, the founder of what is called the First Dynasty. There 
were twenty-six dynasties in succession, ending with King 
Psammetichus in 664 B.C. From that time, the rulers of Egypt 
are not included in the ' Dynastic ' list, and the Egyptian 
Empire came to an end with the conquest of Egypt by the 
Persian King Cambyses in 525 b.c. According to the pre- 



ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC EMPIRES t 3 

vailing division, the first ten dynasties are known as the Old 
Empire, the next, seven as the Middle Empire, and the remainder, 
including the last independent sovereigns, as the New Empire. 

Now Egyptian history becomes much more precise, and its 
compilers had much more information to depend on after the 
year 1580 B.C. than before. This date starts the Israel in 
eighteenth dynasty, which begins the New Empire, Egypt, 
and it marks the time of the expulsion from Egypt of a foreign 
race which had ruled there probably for some two hundred 
years. These foreigners are known as the Hyksos or shepherd 
kings, Semitic invaders who came from Arabia. The time of 
the prosperity of the Semitic Israelites in Egypt was the time of 
their rule. The other king who 'knew not Joseph' probably 
refers to the restoration of a genuine Egyptian dynasty. The 
' Exodus ' was what we may call the last act in the expulsion of 
the Hyksos or Semites. 

Although the information supplied to Herodotus and Manetho 
regarding the earlier period was comparatively meagre and 
legendary, still the priests who gave it had informa- The Pyramid- 
tion of their own derived both from tradition and builders, 
from their knowledge of the actual inscriptions which Egyptologists 
are deciphering again now ; and in its main lines, what Manetho 
and Herodotus tell us is correct. Some of the oldest monu- 
ments in the world are the Pyramids, and Pyramid-builders are 
positively identified with monarchs of the third and fourth 
dynasties, Tjeser and Sneferu, Khufu and Khafra, and others ; 
these two last names appearing in Herodotus as Cheops and 
Chephren, the builders of the biggest Pyramids. The modern 
authorities place their date somewhere between 3500 and 4000 
B.C., the latest date assigned being 3000 B.C. Sneferu was the 
last king of the third dynasty, and until quite recently he was 
the earliest whose own actual inscriptions on rock had been 
identified. Now, there are known inscriptions left by his 
predecessors. These apparently take us back to the 'First 
Dynasty ' — there are eminent authorities who think they take us 
back to a dynasty before that which is called the first — and give 
the impression that Menes, the first king, was a somewhat mythical 
personage, a composite of two or three first-dynasty kings. At 



i 4 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

any rate we can safely say that the Pyramid-builders can be 
definitely identified and an approximate date given for them — 
not before 4000 or after 3000 B.C. — and that there were kings 
before them who left records of their conquests. 

It is clear again that our Pyramid-builders were possessed of 
advanced mathematical knowledge, implying high intellectual 
Before the cultivation ; also that they had control over a vast 
Pyramids. amount of labour involved in the hewing, carting, 
and building up of the great blocks of stone of which the 
Pyramids were made. Also they worked with metal tools. But 
the tombs of the first kings show that in their time, though metal 
was in use, stone implements were not altogether out of date, 
stone tools of an admirable workmanship having been preserved. 
They were already, long before 4000 B.C., very far removed from 
being savages. Moreover the records make it clear that hitherto 
there had been two dominions or states on the Nile, one occupy- 
ing the Delta, or district where the great river splits up into 
several streams, like a fan, while the other occupied the Nile 
valley southward. The first two dynasties were kings of the 
south, who were much occupied in bringing the north or Delta 
into subjection, making the single kingdom of Egypt ; extending 
their dominion westwards into what is called Libya, and east- 
wards into the peninsula of Sinai. 

From the Pyramid-builders to the twelfth dynasty, there is 

much obscurity • but during the twelfth dynasty, Semites appear. 

The Egyptian paintings leave no room for doubt ; 

The Hyksos. ? /r r ■ , ,. r i 

the artists were accurate delineators of race-types, and 

the Semite is unmistakable. Somewhere about 1800 B.C., though 

some authorities prefer an earlier date, the Hyksos invasion took 

place ; though it is not easy to connect the epoch with any other 

Semitic movement. Probably the rule of the dynasties between 

the twelfth and the eighteenth was contemporary with that of 

the foreigners, meaning that there were generally districts over 

which the Hyksos did not consistently maintain their sway. 

Finally, one of these native princes named Aahmes succeeded in 

The New expelling the Hyksos about the year 1580 B.C. The 

Empire. new empire begins, and the records become much 

fuller. The new empire, born of insurrection against foreign 



ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC EMPIRES 15 

oppression, itself developed a new military character. The kings 
of this dynasty overcame the Ethiopians on the south-east of 
Egypt, and carried their arms into Asia, and began to come into 
collision with the Hittites in Syria ; but the great conqueror was 
Thothmes in. in the first half of the fifteenth century. We turn 
now to the development of the Asiatic Empires with which 
Egypt was thus brought in direct contact. 

The story of the Asiatic Empires begins in the region called 
Babylonia. The whole district lying enclosed by the two great 
rivers Euphrates and Tigris is called Mesopotamia, 3# Mesopo- 
meaning the land between the rivers. Babylonia tamia. 
includes the south-eastern half of this district, with the basins of 
both the rivers and the land lying between their junction and the 
Persian Gulf. Babylonia itself is divided into two, to begin with ; 
the southern part called Sumer, and the northern called Akkad. 

The earliest records — that is, graven inscriptions — take us back 
at least as far as the earliest Egyptian records ; and already we 
find the presence of two distinct races marked, sumerians 
who are known as Sumerians and Semites. The and Semites, 
language and the ' script,' that is the ' cuneiform ' or arrow- 
shaped writing, are Sumerian — neither Semitic nor Aryan ; and 
they remain the official language and script long after the 
language had become much changed by a Semitic admixture. 
The probabilities are that the Sumerians had become a fairly 
highly civilised people— civilised enough to have created the 
art of writing — before the more vigorous but ruder Semites 
appeared on the scene ; and the Semites adopted the civilisa- 
tion which they found before them. In the same sort of way, 
some thousands of years later, the Teutons conquered Western 
Europe, but the Latin language and civilisation prevailed over 
the conquerors in the regions where Rome had held sway before. 
Outside the Sumerian area the Semite characteristics prevailed 
as the Teutonic characteristics prevailed outside the bounds of 
the old Roman Empire. 

Probably these Semites, like the later Semitic waves, came out 
of Arabia, crossed Syria, the region between the Upper Euphrates 
and the Mediterranean, entered Mesopotamia, and bore down 
south-eastwards upon the land of Sumer. 



i6 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

At this early period we find records of several Sumerian 
cities, warring with each other, and achieving predominance. A 
Sargon : definite supremacy was established by the Semites 

2700 B.C. of Akkadia under the great King Sargon and his son 

Naram-Sin, and Sargon carried his conquering arms as far as 
the Mediterranean. They ruled, probably, somewhere between 
3000 and 2700 B.C., and at this time there was certainly inter- 
course between Babylonia and Arabia. Sargon is the founder 
of the Empire, and in after ages the Semites of Babylonia based 
their claim to supremacy on the tradition of his greatness. After 
Naram-Sin, however, princes and governors recovered independ- 
ence and occasional supremacy; and sundry dynasties are 
recorded as kings of 'Sumer and Akkad.' The city of Eridu, 
at the head of the Persian Gulf, became their capital. Babylon 
had not yet achieved its pre-eminence. 

Now in the latter part of the third millennium — that is, some- 
what earlier than the year 2000 b.c. — there was a second great 
The Semitic movement of Semitic expansion, starting out of 
Migrations. Arabia. This is called the Canaanite wave. It 
swept up over Palestine and Syria, occupied those regions per- 
manently, and again entered Mesopotamia on the north-west. 
These invading Semites were pastoral nomads, owners of flocks 
and herds, who did not destroy the states they found before them, 
but amalgamated with their Semitic predecessors. Of this stock 
came Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people, who migrated 
from Ur ' of the Chaldees ' to Canaan not long after Babylon had 
risen to supremacy in Mesopotamia under a Semitic dynasty. 
The Hyksos invasion of Egypt must be regarded as a wave of 
this Semitic expansion. In the meantime we have to remark 
that a considerable Semitic power had grown up at Asshur on 
the north of Mesopotamia ; and another non-Semitic power in 
Elam, on the east of Sumer and Akkad, which acquired a 
temporary supremacy over that kingdom at the time when the 
new Semitic Babylonian Empire was being founded. 

This 'First Babylonian Dynasty,' under which Babylon assumed 
Hammurabi the leading position, began with Sumu-abu, a little 
circa 2000 B.C. before 2000 B.C. The fifth in succession after 
Sumu-abu was the great Hammurabi of whom we read in the Old 



ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC EMPIRES 17 

Testament as Abraham's contemporary under the name of 
Amraphel, when Chedorlaomer was King of Elam. Hammurabi 
was a very great ruler, who enjoyed a very long reign, and 
brought most of what is called on the map (1) 'the area of 
Semitic Empire ' under his sway. But he is especially notable 
because he drew up a great legal code, which was engraved on a 
great block of stone, and is preserved to this day. From this 
Code of Hammurabi we see what was the nature of the Baby- 
lonian state ; how it was divided into the three classes of nobles, 
freemen and slaves, the legal rights possessed by each class, the 
penalties for misdoings, the independent position of the women, 
the regulations for trade and commerce. All these show that a 
very high standard of civilisation, and an elaborate system of 
justice and government had been attained four thousand years 
ago. It was not Hammurabi who made these laws, but it was 
he who gave them permanent shape, much like our King Alfred 
in England. 

In the time of Hammurabi's successor, an independent 
principality was set up on the north coast of the Persian Gulf, 
which was called the Kingdom of the Sea. Three or four 
generations later, new forces appeared on the scene. Barbarian 
tribes called the Kassites attacked Babylonia from the east, 
having perhaps first mastered Elam ; and from the west came 
an invasion of the Hittites, or Khatti, who are by no means to 
be confused with the Kassites. 

The Hittites were not like the Semites. Possibly they were 
early inhabitants of Asia Minor, the land beyond the ranges of 
Mount Taurus ; it is not likely that they were akin The 
to the people whom we shall find in Italy under Hittites. 
the name of Etruscans, or to the predecessors of the Hellenes 
in Greece who are usually called Pelasgians ; but we can say 
with certainty that they were not Aryans. Their invasion of 
Babylonia seems to have been a great raid rather than a con- 
quest ; but they remained in occupation of some part of North- 
western Mesopotamia, where they set up the kingdom of 
Mitani, extending into Syria. 

The Kassites however came as conquerors, when Babylon was 
weakened by the Hittite raid and by the defiance of the Country 

B 



18 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

of the Sea. By an error, these kings of the Sea-Country have 
been spoken of as the ' Second Babylonian Dynasty ' ; hence 
The the Kassite dynasty is called the third. They 

Kassites. mastered Akkadia to begin with, and at a later 
stage completed the conquest, overthrowing the kings of the sea. 
But like all other conquerors of Babylonia, they succumbed to 
the existing civilisation. While they were dominant, there came 
another wave of Semitic expansion, called the Aramaic; and 
this resulted in the immediate rise of Assyria, with its capital at 
Asshur and later at Nineveh, to challenge the Babylonian and 
Hittite powers. This rise of Assyria is almost contemporaneous 
with the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt. 

While the eighteenth dynasty was ruling in the land of the 
Nile, we have seen how Thothmes in. appeared as a conqueror 
The Tell * n Syria. At a rather later stage, while the same 

el-Amarna dynasty was in Egypt, and the Kassites were still at 
Letters. Babylon, we have records of the relations of all 

these powers in the great collection of tablets known as the 
Tell el-Amarna letters, which have very recently been discovered 
(in 1888). These were letters to the Egyptian kings Amenhotep 
1. and 11., from the Kassite King of Babylon, the Hittite King of 
Mitani, from another King of Khatti or Hittites, from the King 
of Assyria, and other lesser kings. They discuss royal marriages, 
and usually ask for money. All the kings use the same manner 
of writing, the cuneiform, and the same language, the dialect of 
Babylon — very much as the different courts of Europe communi- 
cate with each other in French. Even the King of Egypt, who 
reckoned himself a much greater potentate than any of the 
others, used the Babylonian language, and Babylonian literature 
was taught in the Egyptian schools. 

We must now revert to Egypt itself, and the successors of 
the great Thothmes. His immediate successors maintained 
the prestige of Egypt ; but then there came a time, 
at the close of the fifteenth century, when the 
priestly caste became predominant. Amenhotep in. began 
making handsome presents to the princes of Asia, by way of 
averting war ; hence the correspondence above referred to, since 
the Asiatic princes were all anxious to ask for more. 



ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC EMPIRES 19 

Next came Amenhotep iv., or Akhenaten, a great religious 

reformer, who attempted to purify the existing religion, and to 

make it a real worship of One God, symbolised by the . 

ii 11 j^- Akhenaten. 

disc of the sun ■ but though he managed to impose 

his own doctrines on his neighbours during his own life, the new 

system was very soon overthrown after his death ; and Egyptian 

orthodoxy was represented by the nineteenth dynasty, known as that 

of the Ramesides, or house of Rameses, the name of its first king. 

About this time, the Mitani kingdom was definitely absorbed 

into the main Hittite power which was now dominating Syria. 

The third kinsr of this dynasty, Rameses 11., obtained 

• v. r i_ • r \x. L Barneses II. 

from posterity credit for being one 01 the great 

rulers of the world. The Greeks called him Sesostris. As a 
matter of fact, although he reigned for more than sixty years, 
from the end of the fourteenth to the middle of the thirteenth 
century, his achievements were not very remarkable. But the 
great monuments of his great predecessors, and their doings, 
were all attributed to him. He waged war with the Hittites, 
which ended in an alliance, apparently highly favourable to the 
Hittites. It has been supposed that his son Meneptah was the 
Pharaoh of the Exodus ; but by this time the Hebrews had 
probably been already long settled in Palestine. In these days 
we hear of pirates from over the sea who are clearly Appearance 
to be identified with the Achaeans and Danaans, of Hellenes. 
the names by which the earliest certainly known Hellenic or 
Greek races were called. This Ramesid dynasty glorified itself 
greatly by the building of temples and monuments. It was 
upset by a brief Syrian domination, the raid of a successful 
captain ; but the former dynasty was apparently restored with the 
twentieth. In this group comes a third Rameses, who is dis- 
tinguished for having repelled a great naval attack by the com- 
bined forces of the more or less Hellenic pirates from the islands 
and especially from Crete. The Egyptian power expanded 
into Libya, but in so doing completely lost its hold on Asia. 

The period of the next Egyptian dynasty coincides roughly with 
that of the rise of the Hebrew kingdom under Saul The Hebrew 
and David, who broke the power of the Philistines, Kingdom, 
a Cretan race who had established themselves on the south of 



20 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

Palestine, and had played a part in the pirate attack upon Egypt. 
King Solomon married a daughter of one of the last of these 
Pharaohs. The Hebrew power was consolidated and widely 
extended under Saul, and especially under David; but after 
Solomon's death it was broken up by the rift between Israel 
and Judah. Politically, the two kingdoms at once became 
nothing more than two minor principalities, generally but 
irregularly paying tribute to one or another of the greater 
kingdoms. 

Jeroboam's revolt took place shortly before his friend Sheshonk, 
or Shishak, secured his own succession to the last Pharaoh of 
the twenty-first dynasty ; his mother being a royal 
Egyptian princess, though otherwise he was of Libyan de- 

Dynasties, scent. For a long while the Libyans had been the 
mainstay of the Egyptian army. Under this twenty-second 
dynasty, which ruled for about 200 years (b.c. 930-730), Egypt 
really broke up into a number of practically independent 
principalities. This resulted, towards 700, in the establishment 
of a dynasty of Pharaohs from Ethiopia, beyond the southern 
confines of Egypt proper. It was in their day that the army 
of the Assyrian Sennacherib was destroyed, probably by an 
outbreak of the Plague. 

When the Tell el-Amama letters were written, Assyria or 
Asshur was beginning to assert its independence and to demand 
5. Assyria and recognition as a sovereign state, in spite of the pro- 
Babylonia, tests of the Kassite King of Babylon. Not long 
afterwards, a revolution in Babylon gave the Assyrian monarch 
a chance of taking control of the Babylonian government. The 
Kassite dynasty was in decay, and Assyria became the great 
rival of the Mitani kingdom for the dominion of upper 
Mesopotamia ; while the advancing Hittites absorbed Syria. 
This race was at the height of its power in the days of 
Rameses 11. Much however still remains to be learnt concern- 
ing it from a quantity of Hittite inscriptions which have hitherto 
remained undecipherable. From this time it ceases to be 
prominent. The Aramaean wave of Semitic migration has been 
credited with helping the first rise of Assyria ; but it can 
certainly claim to have been largely concerned in driving back 



ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC EMPIRES 21 

the Hittites, and when Syria again emerges as a definite power 
with its capital at Damascus, it is definitely Aramaean. The 
consolidation of its power was due to the king, who appears in 
the Old Testament as Ben-hadad. 

The Kassite dynasty of Babylon was overthrown, and for a 
long period Assyria and Babylon strove with alternating suc- 
cess for supremacy in Mesopotamia. Perhaps the strife for 
truest way of looking at this period is to see in Babylonia. 
Babylonia itself a state for which Assyria and an Elamite power 
were striving, the successes of Babylon against Assyria really 
meaning the success of Elam. But the immediate successors of 
the Kassites were a genuine Babylonian dynasty which ejected 
the foreign rulers, and under Nebuchadnezzar 1. (not the king 
we read of in the Bible) revived the glories of Babylon for a 
short time. Here again the inability of Babylon to maintain 
itself against Assyrians on one side and Elamites on the other 
may be due to the incursions of the Aramaeans ; possibly the 
Chaldeans, who now become prominent in Babylonia, as tribes 
in the south-eastern region, are to be connected with this new 
Semitic migration. When Babylon once again rises to a great 
empire under the Nebuchadnezzar of the Old Testament, the 
dynasty is Chaldean. Between these two Nebuchadnezzars, 
Babylon itself may be regarded as being in a state of eclipse — 
for a period of about 500 years. 

During this time Assyria must be treated as the leading power, 
in spite of the general uncertainty of its supremacy. Tiglath- 
pileser 1., after a fashion somewhat common with Assyrian 
Assyrian kings, began his reign as a successful Supremacy, 
conqueror, who carried his arms northward into the mountains 
of Armenia or Urartu, cleared Northern Mesopotamia of rivals, 
and claimed dominion as far west as the Mediterranean, where 
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had been before him. Then came 
disaster, and a long period followed as to which the Assyrian 
records convey the most meagre information. When they 
become less scanty, at the beginning of the ninth Aramaean 
century, the Aramaeans had obviously set up Incursion, 
principalities of their own over a great part of the nominal 
Assyrian empire. A struggle between Assyria and the 



22 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

Aramaeans was about to begin. Not that there was any 
one great Aramaean state, at least to begin with ; but the 
numerous small states joined each other in insurrections, and 
occasionally got help from Babylon — refusing tribute when 
opportunity offered, and submitting when resistance looked 
unpromising. 

Thus it would seem that during the greater part of the eleventh 
and tenth centuries, all the great powers were leaving the whole 
Syrian region without much interference. This no doubt facili- 
tated the rise of the Hebrew kingdom, and allowed the maritime 
. . advancement of the Phoenician cities north of 

Canaan. The Phoenicians were one of the 
Canaanitic Semite groups, who gave themselves, unlike most 
other Semites, vigorously to the development of maritime com- 
merce. They never formed an empire or a powerful military 
state ; but they sent out a colony to Carthage, half way down 
the Mediterranean, and acquired a monopoly of the sea-borne 
carrying trade. Of the five principal cities Tyre achieved the 
pre-eminence, and its king Hiram figures as the friend and ally 
of Solomon, whose sovereignty may have been vaguely recognised 
far beyond the borders of the real Hebrew kingdom. The whole 
coast region had passed entirely out of the Assyrian dominion : 
and when Jeroboam divided the Hebrew kingdom, the superior 
power to whom tribute was paid was Sheshonk or Shishak, King 
of Egypt. 

Assyria renewed its activity under Ashurnasirpal, who died in 
858, after a reign spent in campaigns chiefly on the north and 
east, but extended latterly to Phoenicia. Meanwhile the strong 
Syria and city of Damascus had become the chief, and the 
Assyria. outpost, of the Aramaean states in Syria. Here 

Ashurnasirpal did not venture an attack. His son Shalmaneser, 
however, a statesman as well as a soldier, made the attempt; 
recognising that Damascus was really the gate of Syria and the 
south. He defeated the confederation of southern kings headed 
by Ben-hadad, but was obliged to retire. A little later, when 
Hazael had succeeded Ben-hadad and Jehu had supplanted 
Ahab in Israel, he tried again, but failed in his siege of 
Damascus. After this, in spite of later Assyrian attacks, 



ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC EMPIRES 23 

Damascus continued for more than a century to defy the 
northern power, and to maintain a supremacy among the 
southern states of which it was the bulwark. 

Though foiled in Syria, Shalmaneser established his dominion 
even beyond the Taurus mountain range and in Urartu ; and in 
his reign and his son's, tribute was exacted from chiefs of the 
tribes in Media of which we now hear — the first unmistakable 
collision between the Semitic powers and an Aryan race. 
During the first half of the eighth century, Assyria was fully 
occupied in holding the ground it had won. The next advance 
took place in the reign of Tiglath-pileser iv., beginning in 

745 B -C 

Complete disintegration was threatening to set in when this 
military usurper seized the throne, and very promptly made his 
vigour and activity felt. Chaldeans and old Baby- Tiglath-pileser 
lonians were fighting for the crown in Babylon, on IV - 
the south-east. Urartu on the north was threatening to extend 
dominion into Syria, and Damascus was defiant. In one 
campaign, Tiglath-pileser established the non-Chaldean Nabon- 
assar as his own subordinate in Babylon. A series of cam- 
paigns cleared Mesopotamia, crushed back Urartu, and brought 
Phoenicia into subjection ; a province was annexed from Urartu 
itself. Damascus and the south paid tribute, but again revolted. 
By this time, the southern states were divided between Syrian 
and Assyrian factions, and on the approach of Tiglath-pileser 
most of them made submission ; Damascus held Triumph of 
out stubbornly but fell at last, and an Assyrian Assyria, 
governor was appointed. Finally Babylon was brought directly 
under the sway of the Assyrian. 

It would seem that there was a constant rivalry between the 
priestly caste and the military caste — between church and army, 
so to speak. Repeatedly, a military dynasty overturned, or was 
overturned by, one which leaned on the priesthood. We have 
seen the same thing in Egypt ; for a long time a similar struggle 
went on in India ; something analogous will be found in the 
mediaeval contest between the empire and the papacy. Tiglath- 
pileser's son Shalmaneser was succeeded by Sargon, the nominee 
of the priests, and the effect was to compel the crown to rely on 



24 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

mercenary armies instead of on what may be called national or 
feudal levies. Still, Sargon's military prowess was rather 
encouraged, because his mercenaries required to be satisfied by 
chances of plunder ; and he extended his boundaries on every 
side beyond the limits which Tiglath-pileser had reached. 

He was succeeded in 705 by Sennacherib, who was of the 
other party. By this time, the Israelite kingdom had dis- 
appeared altogether, but Judah remained, and strove 
with the support of Egypt to make head against the 
merciless Assyrian power, which had adopted the practice of 
deporting and transplanting conquered populations wholesale. 
Both Tyre and Jerusalem successfully defied the armies of 
Sennacherib, who attempted to invade Egypt where the Ethiopian 
Tirhakah was Pharaoh. The Angel of the Lord smote his hosts, 
according to the Biblical account : field-mice nibbled their bow- 
strings, according to the Egyptian version. An outbreak of 
plague, heralded as is often the case by the appearance of an 
army of rats, affords a plausible reconciliation of the two stories. 
That there was a terrific catastrophe attributed generally to a divine 
visitation seems certain. 

Sennacherib was assassinated, and his son Esarhaddon favoured 
Babylonia and the priests as against the Assyrian nationalists and 
military nobility. We are now well within the seventh century 
B.C. ; and the Semitic empires begin to feel the pressure of new 
Barbarian peoples — now for the first time of the Aryan stock. 
Not the highly civilised Aryans of Europe and Western Asia 
Minor, with whom the Semites had not yet come in contact, 
but migrating races which had not organised states. These are 
Cimmerians tne Cimmerians, descending apparently on Armenia 
and Medes. or Urartu by way of the Caucasus, the Ashkuza, 
Scythians, and Medes from the north-east and east. As yet, 
however, these are still threatening rather than actually invading 
the Assyrian empire. Esarhaddon thought more about con- 
quering Egypt, where he effected a temporary occupation, drove 
the Ethiopian Pharaoh back to Ethiopia, and set up Assyrian 
governors. A revolt of Esarhaddon's son Ashurbanipal very soon 
gave Tirhakah the chance of recovering Egypt. 

Ashurbanipal in his turn was chosen by the military party, as 



ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC EMPIRES 25 

against his brother whom Esarhaddon had selected. He promptly 
recaptured Egypt ; as soon as his back was turned, Tirhakah's 
successor won it back, only to be finally expelled by sardana- 
another Assyrian expedition. The Egyptians, how- pains, 668. 
ever, being rid of the Ethiopians, at once threw off the yoke of 
the conqueror, who had too much on his hands elsewhere to 
leave an adequate army of occupation in the south. The twenty- 
sixth Egyptian dynasty begins with Psammetichus. 

The Cimmerians were now sweeping over Asia Minor, and 
playing havoc with Lydia and the neighbouring dominions 
which were beyond the Assyrian sphere ; Ashurbanipal did not 
intervene. But unfortunately he was impelled to attack Elam, 
that elusive state on the east, which was still at least a barrier 
between Mesopotamia and the advancing Aryan hordes on that side, 
as Urartu had been on the other. On the whole Ashurbanipal, 
whose name has also the more familiar form of Sardanapalus, 
was a successful ruler. He was also an energetic collector of 
records and of literature, to whose labours we owe almost all 
our information. But after his death, about 630, Assyria rapidly 
collapsed. 

In Babylon the Chaldeans, the party persistently hostile to 
Assyria, captured the throne. The Chaldean king, Nabopolassar, 
allied himself with the Median chief (called Cyaxares The End of 
by the Greek historian Herodotus), who had won an Assyria, 
imperial position in that nation. Chaldeans from the south and 
Medes from the east advanced upon upper Mesopotamia. The 
Cimmerians had already disappeared, having been finally broken 
up by the Lydian power. The 'Ashkuza,' the Aryan group 
intermediate between Medes and Cimmerians, were allies of 
Assyria, but were expelled by Cyaxares, who captured and sacked 
Nineveh, which was levelled to the ground, and other cities of 
Northern Assyria, which simply ceased to exist. The new 
Chaldean empire claimed for its share Chaldea, Mesopotamia, 
and everything south of the Euphrates and west as The Chaldean 
far as Mount Taurus and Phoenicia ; the new Median Empires, 605. 
empire claimed everything from the Persian Gulf upwards, on the 
east and north of the Tigris, as far west as the river Halys. On 
the west of Asia Minor, Lydia was paramount. 



26 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

This was the position when Nabopolassar died. His son, 
Nebuchadnezzar, who was engaged at the time in pushing the 
Chaldean claim in the far south-west (where the Egyptian 
Pharaoh Necho, the son of Psammetichus i., was trying to take 
advantage of Assyria's collapse), made a swift march back to 
Babylon, stamped out all resistance, and secured the succession. 
Then he returned to the south, and completed the establishment 
of his power as far as the bounds of Egypt proper. In the process, 
he carried off the Jews into their Babylonian captivity. The 
Egyptian Pharaoh of this time was the Hophra of the Old Testa- 
ment, called Apries by Herodotus. 

Nebuchadnezzar was a successful warrior ; he was also a 
mighty engineer and builder, who constructed the 'hanging 
Nebuchad- gardens of Babylon ' which were numbered among 
nezzar. the seven wonders of the world, designed great 

canal-works for the military defence of Babylon, fortified the 
northern frontier, and built many temples. He would seem to 
have further organised the empire which had now acquired a 
greater extent than that of Sargon or Hammurabi. But it was 
destined to a brief duration. A few years after his death in 561, 
the sceptre passed to Nabonidus, in whose reign a new power 
arose among the Medes, which displaced the Median supremacy, 
conquered and swallowed up Lydia and the Chaldean empire, and 
had added Egypt to its dominion before the century closed. Of 
this we shall read in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER III 

THE ARYAN MIGRATIONS : RISE OF THE HELLENES 
AND OF PERSIA 

While these empires of Western Asia were growing and 
changing, there was going on all round them the expansion of 
that other race, not akin, so far as we know, to i. The Aryan 
any of those with whom we have been concerned Migrations. 
hitherto. Of this other race one branch made its way into 
India, where it remained almost entirely cut off from the main 
stream of the world's history ; as happened also to the Mon- 
golian race which created the remote Empire of China. A 
second branch was to win the lordship over all the lands whose 
history has been related ; this conquering race, however, was 
not to absorb the conquered, but to be absorbed by them. A 
third group was to develop the most fruitful of all civilisations, 
and was to become the bulwark of the West against the ex- 
pansion of the East. 

Of the Aryan migration into India we may content ourselves 
for the present with saying that the conquering race burst 
through the mountain passes probably at about The Aryans 
the time when Hammurabi was flourishing at in India. 
Babylon. By degrees they made themselves masters of the 
north-west corner of India which is called the Punjab, which 
means the land of the five rivers — the Indus and its tributaries. 
They set up kingdoms just as long ages afterwards Angles and 
Saxons set up various kingdoms in England. They went on 
expanding, conquering, and setting up more kingdoms till they 
ruled over the whole basin of the great river Ganges and its 



28 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

tributaries, which empties itself into the Bay of Bengal ; and 
they pushed south to the Nerbudda, which flows into the 
Arabian Sea. In the plains they entirely subdued the earlier 
populations whom they enslaved. In the course of time they 
spread beyond the regions that have been spoken of, which 
bear the general name of Hindustan. But their conquest of 
the hilly regions southwards, called the Deccan, was never so 
complete; and the older, darker races, which are called 
Dravidian, to a great extent preserved their independence and 
their own languages and customs. Kingdoms developed into 
empires in Hindustan, but no Indian prince ever attempted to 
recross the mountains into Western Asia as a conqueror. There 
is a veil between India and the West, which was drawn aside 
only at long intervals and for brief periods, until the nations of 
Western Europe found an ocean route to the East only four 
hundred years ago. 

There is a great range of mountains which runs, roughly 
speaking, parallel to the river Tigris on the north-east from 
Medes and the Persian Gulf up to the mountain regions of 
Persians. Armenia. On the east of this, or at any rate east 

of a line drawn from the foot of the Caspian Sea to near the 
head of the Persian Gulf, the empires of Elam and Babylon 
and Assyria never seem to have exercised effective rule. At 
some period unknown, the regions immediately to the east of 
this land were occupied by the Aryan races called the Medes 
and Persians. But it is not till the seventh century B.C. that 
the Medes became an aggressive though still uncivilised power. 
Towards the middle of the sixth century B.C. Western Asia, leaving 
out Arabia, was divided into three great dominions. West of a 
line drawn from the middle of the Black Sea coast southwards 
to the north-eastern corner of the Mediterranean was the 
dominion of Lydia. The rest, south and west of the river 
Tigris, was the Chaldean Empire ; while north and east of the 
Tigris lay the Median Empire. 

Among the Persian tribes at the south-eastern corner of this 
empire arose in the middle of this sixth century the mighty 
warrior Cyrus, who first seized for himself the Median throne, 
then conquered Lydia, and finally crushed and absorbed the 



THE ARYAN MIGRATIONS 29 

Chaldean Empire. It remained for his son Cambyses to over- 
throw Egypt and add that to the new Persian Empire. 

Now we can see that the real boundaries of the ancient 
empires, whose stories we have told in the last chapter, were 

set by the great mountain chain which is shown on a . „. 

r 1 • 1 • ii 1 a r Asia Minor - 

the map, the western part of which is called Mount 

Taurus, which bends northward to the head-waters of the 
Euphrates and the Tigris, and then south-eastwards beyond the 
Tigris to the Persian Gulf. The western part of this territory 
beyond the mountains, the land lying between the Black Sea 
and the north-east coast of the Mediterranean, is Asia Minor. 
The Hittite Empire arose in Asia Minor and spread into 
Syria, but the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires never main- 
tained any prolonged hold of the regions beyond the mountains. 

The early history of these regions is obscure. Their popula- 
tions were pretty certainly akin to the pre-Semitic peoples of 
Mesopotamia. How far the Semites penetrated among them 
and combined with them, as they did with the peoples of Syria 
and Mesopotamia, is uncertain. It is uncertain even whether 
the Hittites should be classed as Semites; and finally, it is 
uncertain when and how far an Aryan element entered and 
predominated. 

It is not impossible that there were Aryan predecessors of 
that wave of migration which is called Hellenic, which entered 
Asia from Europe. It is agreed, however, that 2 . The 
the Hellenic migration was entering Greece and Hellenes 
spreading over the islands of the Aegean Sea by or ree s * 
the middle of the second millennium ; and that before the 
close of that millennium it was occupying the districts along the 
coast. Our earliest recorded information about the Hellenes is 
derived from the Homeric Poems, which were probably not 
written till about 800 B.C., but were based on poems and ballads 
which had grown up during earlier centuries, and represented 
much earlier traditions. 

They tell of the war of the Greeks, generally spoken of as 
Achaeans or Danaans, against Troy, under the leadership of 
Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae. Excavations at Mycenae, a 
town in the Peloponnesus, and at Troy, have proved that there 



3 o EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

really were great cities at both those places with an advanced 
civilisation long before the year 1000 B.C. Excavations in the 
island of Crete have shown that there also, as well as at Mycenae, 
the civilisation at this early stage was of a Greek type. And we 
have from Egypt records of mail-clad warriors coming by sea 
from the north with names which quite certainly represent 
Achaeans and Danaans. 

It appears, then, that about the middle of the second 
millennium this Hellenic group was establishing or had estab- 
Aeolians lished itself in the Grecian Peninsula and in the 

ionians, and islands of the Aegean Sea, including Crete. This 
Dorians. group subsequently split into two divisions called 

Aeolian and Ionian. Then a little later came another Hellenic 
group from the north-west called the Dorians, who made them- 
selves masters of the western half of the Peninsula, the whole of 
the Peloponnesus, and many of the islands, by a date which we 
may put down at about iooo B.C. By this time Ionians and 
Aeolians had already established themselves also on the coast 
of Asia Minor. The Dorians did likewise ; and also established 
dynasties among the states already existing in Asia Minor, or 
the western part of it, notably in the state called Lydia, which 
had its capital at Sardis. A little later this Lydian state extended 
its supremacy over nearly the whole of Asia Minor, until, as we 
saw, it shared Western Asia with the Median and Chaldean 
Empires. 

When we speak of a state or people being civilised, we mean 
first of all that it lives under an ordered government which 

... . protects the lives and property of its citizens ; it 

has learnt discipline and obedience to authority. 
Secondly, we mean that it has acquired a degree of proficiency 
in sciences and arts which enables it to provide itself with 
comforts and luxuries, and generally with the means of adding 
to the enjoyments of life. No test of civilisation is more im- 
portant than that of Government. Now, in all the states that 
we have dealt with so far, we have found them concerned with 
lordship over large territories. We have not found in any of 
them a very highly organised government, or one in which any 
large proportion of the people have a share. There is not, in 



THE ARYAN MIGRATIONS 31 

short, much sense of the rights of the governed or of the duties 
of the governors. But when we come to the Hellenes we find a 
different state of things altogether. 

As soon as we have any records of them they are already dwellers 
in well-built cities, in possession of many luxuries, endowed with 
what we may call a literature, and skilled in the Hellen j C 
work of the smith, the potter, the engraver, and the Character- 
architect. On the other hand, though we find a lstics - 
Hellenic people in the sense that all Hellenes look upon each 
other as kinsmen of the same race, and upon all who do not 
belong to that race as an inferior folk whom they classify all 
together as barbarians, we do not find a Hellenic nation in the 
sense that any great mass of Hellenes recognise a single govern- 
ment common to them all. On the contrary, every city regards 
itself as a separate state, and the members of all other cities as 
aliens. The Hellenic world is broken up into a hundred states, 
which may combine together for the purpose of a war, and may 
for that purpose even temporarily recognise a single leader ; 
but they do not own any common government. Each state, 
however, is in the early stage governed in the same way as its 
neighbours. There is a king. There is a council of elders or 
chiefs. There is a general assembly of all the freemen who 
bear arms. 

When the migrations ceased, and all the Greeks had settled 
down, we soon find changes in this original system of govern- 
ment ; but we can perceive with a fair degree of accuracy how 
the changes came about. And we are helped in forming our 
ideas about this by our knowledge of the way in which the 
government of other Aryan nations grew up at a time when 
there were civilised observers who studied their institutions, as 
travellers and explorers nowadays study and record the manners 
and customs of barbaric peoples. 

With the Greeks we have no record of a time before they 
were ruled over by kings and a council of chiefs who were also 
entitled to their position by hereditary right. Also Greek 
they always had the Assembly of Freemen who Government: 
were entitled to be consulted on matters of grave Kin £ sM P- 
importance. With our own Teutonic ancestors, however, we 



32 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

can see the kingship in the making. When the Roman 

observers studied them, many of the tribes had no kings, but 

only chose a war-leader for a campaign or series of campaigns. 

Then the war-leader became war-leader for life, and civil head 

of the state as well, and the office became fixed in one family. 

The probabilities are that kingship arose among the Greeks in 

just the same way. 

But the kingship did not last. In the days of the Homeric 

Poems there were kings everywhere. But the rule was almost 

universal, that the council of chiefs gradually deprived the king 

of his power, till the royal family came to be of no more account 

than that of other chiefs ; or else they got rid of the royal family 

altogether. When this had happened the state was controlled by 

a hereditary aristocracy or oligarchy, the ffovern- 
Aristocracies. _ , 3 . „ 3 & J1 . & 

merit of the tew. 1 hen came contests between the 

aristocracy and the general body of citizens who claimed a larger 

share in the government. Sometimes the aristocracy kept its 

power, though usually when this happened it was because it 

admitted the more powerful of the other citizens to its ranks. 

But nearly always the time came when some one, pretending to 

act as a leader of the people, succeeded in making himself a 

despot ; or, as the Greeks call such men, tyrannos, from which 

we take the word tyrant. These ' tyrants ' or 

usurpers were often very able men • but except in 

very rare cases, where they had really been placed in power by 

the will of the people, they could only maintain themselves by 

means of a hired soldiery, and became generally detested. No 

dynasty of Tyrants endured for many generations ; and when 

they were expelled it was sometimes to make way for a restoration 

of the aristocracy, and sometimes for a popular government or 

democracy. 

During the seventh century B.C. there was another movement 

among the Hellenic peoples. When we have spoken before of 

migrations, we have meant by that the movement 
Colonisation. ° . . 

of great groups of clans or tribes which were con- 
stantly moving onwards, partly because there were more tribes 
pressing on behind them, until they conquered for themselves 
cities or districts from which they could not be driven out, and- 



THE ARYAN MIGRATIONS 33 

where they were satisfied to establish themselves permanently. 
Now, in the seventh century, the Hellenes had already taken 
possession of the whole of the Greek Peninsula and all the 
islands in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, and most of 
the coast of Asia Minor. They could not go conquering inland 
in Asia Minor ; partly because they did not wish to move away 
from the sea, and partly because no state could muster an army 
big enough to go conquering on its own account. Still a great 
many of the cities began to feel themselves overcrowded ; and so 
began an era of colonisation, when one city after another sent 
out great expeditions to establish cities wherever they could, 
across the sea. In this way a number of Greek cities were 
founded in Sicily and on the south coast of Italy, and even as 
far away as the south coast of what is now France, Distribution 
at Massilia, which has very nearly kept its name to of the 
this day in the form of Marseilles. In these regions Hellenes - 
they had no organised governments opposed to them to prevent 
their settlement; though in Sicily they presently found them- 
selves opposed to the rivalry of the great Phoenician colony at 
Carthage on the north coast of Africa facing Sicily, which had 
become an independent state, and was sending its ships and its 
colonists to regions more remote than were reached even by the 
Greek seamen. 

Now, if we look at a map of the Balkan and Greek Peninsula, 
the whole of the southern part was now occupied by people who 
recognised each other as Hellenes, who were all living in city- 
states such as have been described. Next to the northward 
come the regions of Macedonia and Epirus, which were as a 
matter of fact Hellenic, but were comparatively uncivilised, and 
were not recognised by their southern kinsmen. Then between 
the Adriatic and Black Seas, south of the river Danube or Ister, 
come Illyria on the west and Thrace on the east. The peoples 
here were Aryan ; the Illyrians probably of the common stock 
which had divided into Hellenes and Italians. The Thracians 
may either have been of the same stock, or have belonged to the 
Slavonic group ; but they never took their place as a civilised 
people. 

Through Thrace there poured into Asia during the seventh 

c 



34 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

century a host of barbaric tribes who were called Cimmerians. 
They threatened the destruction of the Assyrian Empire; but 
their domination did not last long, as they were 
overthrown by the Lydian King Alyattes, and were 
either driven out of the land altogether, or absorbed among the 
previous inhabitants. This Cimmerian incursion was merely an 
episode without permanent effect ; but the victory of Alyattes 
greatly aided that prince in consolidating the Lydian dominion, 
which attained its greatest power under its last monarch Croesus, 
whose name has become proverbial for his enormous wealth. He 
succeeded in bringing the Greek states of Asia Minor under his 
dominion, and when he himself was overthrown by Cyrus, these 
Greek states with the rest of the Lydian territories were absorbed 
into the new Persian Empire. 

Among the states of the Greek peninsula many have attained 
celebrity. In early days the Doric city of Argos stood in the 
The Great front rank, and had never resigned its pretensions 
Cities. to be a leading state. Corinth, another Dorian 

state, was famous and prosperous, and a great coloniser. Thebes, 
an Aeolian city in the district of Boeotia, claimed a sort of 
supremacy in Boeotia itself, was the central point of ancient 
legends, and was to become for a short period during the fourth 
century b.c. the leading state of Hellas. But there are two states 
which stand out prominently above the rest, the Dorian Sparta, 
or Lacedaemon, and the Ionian Athens. 

Sparta had at all times been acknowledged as a state which at 
any rate had no superior. In her wars with other Greek states, 
S ta however protracted, she had habitually proved 

victorious in the end. Her organisation aimed at 
military efficiency, and made everything else subordinate to that. 
Tradition attributed her peculiar system to a law-giver named 
Lycurgus. Political power was in the hands of the dominant 
tribe called Spartiatae or Spartans, who lived under severe 
discipline, were trained to the highest capacity of physical 
endurance, and won the reputation of being invincible in battle. 
All the officers of state were taken from this tribe. The rest of 
the population consisted of the free Lacedaemonians, and of the 
Helots, the earlier inhabitants whom the Dorians had enslaved, 



THE ARYAN MIGRATIONS 35 

and who were held in subjection. Sparta was almost the only 
state of importance which was never brought under a Tyrant, 
and in fact never departed from a hereditary kingship. But 
instead of having one hereditary monarch, she had two hereditary 
kings. Though their powers were extremely restricted they 
made it practically impossible for any one man to snatch at a 
despotism. The real power of the state, however, lay in the 
hands of a small body called the Ephors, who themselves held 
office only for a year. In the sixth century B.C. Sparta was 
recognised as the most powerful of the Greek states ; and where- 
ever any concerted action was proposed among those states she 
had a predominant voice in their counsels, and an acknowledged 
right to their military leadership. 

In strong contrast to Sparta was Athens, who, without 
especially devoting herself to military organisation or the pursuit 
of military glory, became in the fifth century the 
rival of Sparta for supremacy in the Hellenic 
world. Unlike Sparta, Athens had progressed steadily from 
the monarchy of early times to democracy, or government 
which sought to give expression to the will of the people at 
large. The kings had gradually lost their royal functions, 
which were partly divided among officers called Archons, who 
held office for a fixed period which finally became a year ; and 
were partly absorbed by the council of the nobles. But more 
and more the freemen strove to obtain increased rights in the 
appointment of public officers and in eligibility to public offices. 
At last the free citizens came to be divided into classes mainly 
according to the extent of their property, the different classes 
having different degrees of political power, until by degrees all 
were admitted to full political rights. But this did not come 
about until the middle of the fourth century. In Athens, as 
everywhere else, there was a large slave population which had 
no political rights at all. The most famous among the law- 
givers of Athens was Solon, who in the sixth century arranged 
the quarrels of the aristocracy and the commons so as greatly 
to increase the power of the latter, while still giving a dominant 
voice to the former. 

But after the time of Solon, the system still failed to satisfy 



36 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

the commons, and Athens underwent the usual fate. A clever 
politician named Pisistratus succeeded in making himself 
despot or Tyrant. He was a ruler of great ability, 
and Athens prospered under his sway. He 
encouraged art and literature, and it was in his time that the 
two great Homeric Epics were edited by scholars into the form 
which they have retained ever since. All educated Greeks 
knew their Homer almost as Britons know their Bible ; but 
before the time of Pisistratus there was, so to speak, no 
authorised version. But, however prosperous Athens might 
be, political liberty and government by a despot cannot exist 
together ; and the Athenian passion for political liberty was 
strong. When Pisistratus died, his son Hippias succeeded 
in retaining the despotism, with the support of his brother 
The Tyrants Hipparchus. Hipparchus was assassinated, on 
expelled from account of a purely personal quarrel, by Harmodius 
Athens. an( j Aristogiton, who were subsequently honoured 

very undeservedly as the liberators of their country. It was 
not, in fact, till some years later that the Athenians succeeded 
in expelling Hippias in 510 B.C. The constitution of Solon 
was restored in a modified form by Cleisthenes. Hippias 
himself took refuge in Asia Minor, where he intrigued to 
obtain help in recovering the despotism. 

Six years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, three other 
kings having ascended the throne during this interval, Nabonidus 
3. Rise of became King of Babylon. Nabonidus was an 
Persia. enthusiastic antiquary and scholar, to whom 

historians are considerably indebted; but he left the care of 
his empire to his son Belshazzar, who is spoken of in the Bible 
as if he had been actually king. About the same time Astyages 
ascended the Median throne, and Croesus was King of Lydia. 
Now there appeared in Persia a great captain 
named Cyrus, who claimed, probably without 
justification, that he belonged to the royal family of Media. 
Romantic legends cling about the story of his birth and up- 
bringing, and all tradition presents him as of an heroic character, 
the ideal of a chivalrous warrior. Certainly he must have been 
a man of great qualities. At any rate, Cyrus, with the help 



THE ARYAN MIGRATIONS 37 

of the Persian nobility, and aided by a conspiracy among the 
Medes, overthrew the ruling Median dynasty, and made himself 
monarch of all Media. A monarchy so won could only be 
maintained by continuous conquests ; and while Nabonidus of 
Babylon was dreaming of inscriptions, Cyrus the Persian turned 
his arms against the monarch of Lydia, whom he conquered, 
and whose territory he annexed. Croesus had realised his 
danger, and attempted to gather allies to check the Median 
advance ; but he was already overthrown before the allies were 
ready to come to his help. Then Cyrus turned on Babylon, 
and captured the great city by a remarkable p a u f 
engineering feat. Babylon was protected by the Babylon. 
Euphrates ; but Cyrus, by a system of canals, diverted the 
course of the river, and so was able to enter the city. Its 
capture, which the Bible narrative attributes by an error to 
Darius, one of the successors of Cyrus, made him master of the 
whole Babylonian Empire. 

Cyrus himself was slain while leading a great expedition 
against the barbarian tribes on the east of the Caspian Sea, who 
were included in the general name of Scythian, applied by the 
Greeks to all the nomadic hordes who dwelt beyond civilised 
regions; some of which were probably Slavonic Aryans, while 
others were of those Mongolian races which later times have 
named Tartars or Turks. 

Cyrus was succeeded by his son Cambyses. Cambyses left 
the Scythians alone, having found a pretext for invading the 
great southern empire of Egypt. Here for the CamDyses 
last forty years there had ruled a usurper whom conquers 
the Greeks called Amasis, to whom Croesus had E ^y pt - 
appealed in vain for aid against Cyrus. His successor 
Psammetichus had been on the throne only a few months, 
when the invader arrived and crushed his armies in one 
great battle which laid all Egypt at his mercy. Thus the 
Persian Cambyses was lord of the whole civilised world 
in Asia and Africa, except the comparatively remote state of 
Carthage. 

The reign of Cambyses was brief. On his death the Imperial 
throne was captured by an impostor professing to be Smerdis, 



38 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

the younger son of Cyrus, who had in fact been murdered. The 
false Smerdis was really a Babylonian, who intended to re- 
store the Babylonian supremacy in the new empire. 
But the imposture was discovered, and a con- 
spiracy among the Median and Persian nobility placed on the 
throne one of their own number, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, 
who as a matter of course claimed kinship with Cyrus, of whom 
there were now no actual descendants. 

Darius is to be regarded as the organiser of the Persian 
Empire, in which the Persian and Median nobility were the 
dominant section. Nevertheless, the civilisation of the empire 
continued to be essentially of the same type as before the 
domination of these Aryan races. 

It does not, in fact, appear that any great changes in the actual 
organisation were made by Darius; rather, he extended over 
The new tne wno ^ e empire the system which had prevailed 

Persian for centuries in the various Mesopotamian Empires, 

mpire. rp^ wno ] e was divided up into great districts called 

Satrapies, each under its own Satrap, a title which may be 
rendered as Lieutenant-governor. It was the Satrap's business 
to administer the affairs of his province, so that he supplied the 
Imperial Treasury with the tribute required, and with the troops 
Greek which might be demanded. The divisions of his 

Subjects of province were managed by a local government, 
after their own fashion ; and thus we find Asia 
Minor distributed into four or five Satrapies, where the separate 
Greek cities were in the hands of despots who looked to the 
Satrap to keep them secure. Owing to the fact that Asia Minor 
was now for the first time brought under this general system, 
the Greeks credited Darius with having invented the system 
itself. It is probable that otherwise the main change lay in the 
favour shown to the Persian and Median nobility in the dis- 
tribution of power and office. 

Darius, like his predecessors, set about extending his 
dominions, and seems to have obtained some recognition of his 
Darius in authority even from Indian princes. He invaded 
Europe. Europe by way of the Hellespont, marching north- 

ward and crossing the Danube ; on this expedition he pene- 



THE ARYAN MIGRATIONS 39 

trated into Scythia, where the inhabitants enticed him farther 
into the interior, but never offered battle; and his army 
narrowly escaped annihilation. How he fared when he turned 
his arms against the Greeks we shall see in the next 
chapter. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



Book i. to 500 b.c. 



GUIDING DATES 



Dates ge?ierally inferred. 

Early civilisations in Egypt 

and in Sumer . 5000-4000 

Egyptian Fourth Dynasty 

(Pyramid-builders) 4000-3500 
Beginnings of China . . 3000 
Sargon of Akkad . . 2700 

First Aryan Migrations . 2500 
Second Semitic Migration 

(Canaanite) begins . . 2200 
Hammurabi at Babylon . 2000 
Hyksos conquest of Egypt . 1800 
Appearance of Hittites . 1800 
Kassite dynasty begins at 

Babylon .... i8co 

Dates approximately known. 

Third Semitic Migration 

(Aramaean) begins . . 1600 
Hyksos expelled from Egypt 1 580 
Rise of Assyria . . . 1550 
Thothmes ill. in Egypt . 1470 
Tell el-Amarna Letters . 1380 
Rameses 11. in Egypt . . 1300 
Meneptah ^ 

Cretan civilisation \ .1250 

Hellenic Sea-rovers J 
Nebuchadnezzar I. . . 1200 
Mycenaean and Trojan 
civilisation . . . 1100 
40 



Tiglath-pileser 1. . . . 1100 
The Hebrew kingdom | 

Rise of Tyre and Damascus] 
Dorian Migration . . icoo 
Code of Manu in India . 1000 



Shishak . . . . 930 
Ashurnasirpal . . .885 

Shalmaneser 11. . . . 860 

Carthage founded circa . 800 

Rome founded (traditionally) 753 
Greek Colonial expansion, 

from circa . . .750 

Tiglath-pileser iv. . . 745 

Fall of Damascus . . 731 

Shalmaneser iv. . . . 727 

Sargon 11 722 

Sennacherib . . . 705 

Tirhakah in Egypt . . 670 
Ashurbanipal (Sardanapa- 

lus) 668 

The Cimmerian incursion . 668 

Psammetichus . . . 660 

Rise of Lydia and Media . 660 
Overthrow of Assyria by 
Cyaxares and Nabopolas- 
sar ; new Chaldaean and 

Median Empires . . 607 

Nebuchadnezzar 11. . . 605 

Buddha in India, circa . 600 

Croesus in Lydia . . 560 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 41 



550 


Darius, King of Persia 


521 


551 


Kings expelled from Rome. 


509 


546 


Tyrants expelled from 




539 


Athens .... 


510 


525 


The Ionic Revolt 


500 



Cyrus the Persian in Media 
Confucius born in China . 
Conquest of Lydia 
Fall of Babylon . 
Cambyses conquers Egypt . 



LEADING NAMES 

Cheops — Sargon — Hammurabi — Aahmes — Amenhotep IV.— 
Thothmes III.— Rameses II.— Rameses III.— Nebuchadnezzar I.— 
David — Manu — Ashurnasirpal — Ben-hadad — Romulus — Tiglath- 
pileser IV.— Sennacherib— Tirhakah— Psammetichus— Sardanapalus 
— Cyaxares— Nabopolassar— Nebuchadnezzar II.— Croesus— Naboni- 
dus — Cyrus — Cambyses — Darius— Solon— Pisistratus — Hippias — 
Buddha— Confucius. 

NOTES 

Races. (1) Among the divisions of mankind, three main stocks are 
definitely marked out from each other and from the rest : the Semitic, 
the Negro, and the Aryan. The Aryan stock has two Asiatic branches, 
the Indian and the Persian ; and five main European branches, 
appearing historically in order — Hellenic, Italian, Celtic, Teutonic, 
Slavonic. (2) A fourth pre-Semitic and pre-Aryan stock may have 
covered the whole region encircling the Mediterranean, but as to this 
we can only make more or less plausible guesses. But it is clear that 
both Semites and Aryans, wherever they went, found peoples before 
them who were certainly not negroes. The most prominent sub- 
divisions of these would be the Egyptians, the Libyans or Berbers in 
North Africa, the Iberians in Western Europe, and the Etruscans in 
Italy. Probably, though by no means certainly, the earliest organised 
civilisations known in Greece and Asia Minor should be connected 
with this group. (3) The term Mongolian is unfortunately used in a 
very confused way, both (a) for one particular branch of a larger group 
of races {b) to which the same name is given, and for (c) all the races 
the formation of whose skulls have certain characteristics, whether 
pre-Aryan and pre-Semitic, or post-Aryan and post-Semitic. Now if 
we use the term in the second of these senses, we find included under 
it (a) the Chinese proper, who had probably established a civilisation 
in the far east five or six thousand years ago ; and probably the 
Sumerians ; (/3) Nomadic races inhabiting Central Asia which from 
time to time have hurled themselves against the civilised states, after 
the Aryan migrations were ended ; these would include the Huns, 
the Avars, the Magyars, and the Bulgarians, who successively burst 



42 EARLY PEOPLES AND EMPIRES 

into Europe ; the Turks, of whom the Seljuks and Ottomans were only 
branches ; and the Mughals (Mongols, Moguls) and Manchus ; (y) 
probably Japanese and Malays ; (8) possibly, American races. (4) The 
primitive races of the Indian peninsula are commonly grouped as 
Dravidian ; these with the peoples of the Eastern Archipelago are 
sometimes called Negroid, as having signs of kinship with the pure 
negroes of Africa. (5) Before any of the races above enumerated 
appeared, there seem to have been human races scattered over 
Africa, Southern Asia, the Eastern Archipelago, and Australia, 
which never attained any appreciable degree of civilisation, and were 
generally exterminated, but survived here and there ; as the Pygmy 
tribes and Bushmen in Africa, and the aborigines of Australia and 
Tasmania. (6) Crosses between conquering and conquered races 
produced other races which cannot be definitely classified with any 
of the above groups. 



SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE TO CHAPTERS II. AND III 

The development of several peoples prior to 500 B.C. has been 
omitted in these chapters, as the account of them will come more 
conveniently in chapters where their history can be given con- 
secutively ; as of Rome in Chapter vi. and of India in Chapter 
xxiii. But for the sake of chronology, certain points may here be 
noted. 

China. The legendary history of China, with a probable basis of 
truth, begins nearly 3000 years B.C. It is not unlikely that the 
Chinese migrated eastwards, parting from the Sumerians some 
hundreds of years earlier. The first historical dynasty begins in 
2356 B.C., according to the Chinese compilations ; and three dynasties 
are enumerated between 2205 B.C. and 250 B.C. The father of Chinese 
History and Moral Philosophy, Kung-fu-tse or Confucius, lived in 
the sixth century B.C. 

India. The Aryan invasion probably entered the Punjab not later 
than 2000 B.C., and had completely mastered the whole of Northern 
India, and a great part of the south before 1000 B.C. This may be 
taken as approximately the date of the Code of Manu, the Brahmin 
Book of the Law, which shows the organisation of society, govern- 
ment, and religion. This became much modified later, the teaching 
of Gautama or Buddha displacing the earlier doctrines and changing 
the system, probably during the sixth century B.C. Buddhist doctrines 
spread all over the far east. Darius of Persia seems to have obtained 
tribute from the Punjab, 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 43 

Italy. The Aryans, entering Italy about iooo B.C., or earlier, found 
the Etruscan civilisation before them. They are early distinguish- 
able in two branches, the Latin and Sabellian. The Latins 
established cities in Latium, forming a league, of which Rome 
became the head. Rome, according to tradition, was founded by 
Romulus in 753 B.C., and was ruled over by seven successive kings, 
of whom the last was expelled in 509 B.C., when the Roman Republic 
was established. 



BOOK II 
THE GLORY OF GREECE 
AND THE RISE OF ROME 



CHAPTER IV 

ATHENS AND SPARTA 

It is about the beginning of the fifth century B.C. that we may 
claim to find ourselves in the full light of history. We have 
l The Persian come to tne tmie wnen a great writer, Herodotus, 
war : set himself to write a story of the contest between 

Herodotus. ^ Q ree k s an( j the Persians whom they called bar- 
barians. Herodotus was not himself an eye-witness of the events 
which he described, but he got his information from people who 
had been eye-witnesses. He travelled to an immense number of 
cities, and learnt everything that he could about them ; and from 
this time there were always people who were writing down records 
of what they saw and heard, so that the authors of the books 
which have survived always had plenty of sources of information, 
even though they might not always be particularly skilful in 
judging how much of what they were told was true and how much 
was not. 

About the year 500, then, the Persians were lords of all 
Western Asia, including the Greek cities of Asia Minor, which had 
The ionic been under the rule of the Lydian King Croesus. 

Revolt. But the Greek cities on the other side of the Aegean 

Sea, and some of the islands, were independent. The power of the 
' Great King,' as the Persian monarch was called, did not extend 
into Europe. Just at this time some of the Greek cities in Asia 
Minor revolted against the rule of the provincial governor or 
Satrap, who was set over them ; and they called upon their kins- 
men from the other side of the sea to come and help them. A 
band of Athenians did go and take a part in the revolt, though 
they were recalled to Athens before the end of the contest, and 
the revolt was put down. 



ATHENS AND SPARTA 47 

Now King Darius was very wroth when he began to be aware 
that these insignificant Greek cities were making light of his 
power ; and when he had leisure, he listened to the complaints 
of Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, and sent a very great army, in- 
tending to set up Hippias as despot again at Athens, Marathon, 
and to order the other Greek cities to pay tribute. 490 B.C. 
But the Greek states in their own wars with each other had learnt 
to fight under discipline. No one else was ready to come to the 
help of the Athenians except the valiant folk of the little city of 
Plataea, which lay not many miles distant. Nevertheless the 
Athenians resolved to do battle for their freedom, and their 
army marched out to meet the great host of the Persians, where — 

' The mountains look on Marathon 
And Marathon looks on the sea.' 

The Persian troops were ten to one — we cannot be very sure of 
the exact numbers — and they were reputed to be invincible 
soldiers, since they had overthrown Lydia and Babylon and 
Egypt. Nevertheless, the Greeks charged against them across 
the plain, shattered their ranks, and drove them down to their 
ships with a great slaughter ; indeed, they were hard put to it to 
escape at all. 

King Darius would have sent another army against the Greeks, 
but there was a revolt in Egypt against the Persian sway which 
delayed matters. So it was not till ten years after the Athenians 
had won the glorious victory of Marathon, when 2 The ffreat 
Darius was dead, that his son Xerxes raised a Invasion, 
gigantic armament to overwhelm the Greeks. For 480 BC - 
though Sparta and the rest had left Athens to fight by herself, 
they had agreed that they would pay no tribute to Persia. In 
the meantime a very clever Athenian named Themistocles had 
become the leading statesman at Athens, and by his advice the 
Athenians had been working hard to build and to train a very 
powerful navy. For Themistocles saw that the Greek state 
which had the strongest navy was almost certain to become the 
leader of the cities which stood on the sea, both among the 
islands and on the mainland. Also he saw that if the Greek 
fleets could defeat the Persian fleets on the seas, the Persians 



4 8 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

would find it very difficult to keep large armies in Europe, seeing 
that their only road into Europe lay across the straits called the 
Hellespont, which we call the Dardanelles. 

Never had there been seen in the world an army and a fleet 
so huge as those which Xerxes gathered for the smiting of 
the Greeks. A great bridge of boats was built across the 
Hellespont" for the army to march over. This time the Greeks 
The Defence °f the south were united. The mountains made it 
of Greece. impossible for the Persian host to get into Greece 
except by way of certain passes. The furthest north was the pass 
of Tempe in Thessaly. Further south came the pass of Thermo- 
pylae. If the Persians got through Thermopylae, the next place 
at which they could be stopped was the Isthmus of Corinth ; 
and there was always a danger that whatever spot the Greeks 
chose to block the advance of the great land army, the Persian 
fleet might be able to effect a landing so as to take them in the 
rear. The Greeks then collected a very powerful fleet ; but first 
they had to give up the idea of protecting Thessaly, because 
they found that there were passes by which the Persians would 
be able to get round and attack their rear at Tempe. So a 
force under a Spartan King Leonidas was sent to hold the 
narrow pass of Thermopylae, where a very small body of men could 
easily keep an immense number of enemies at bay. Meanwhile, 
most of the Peloponnesian armies were gathering to guard the 
Isthmus of Corinth, or were on board the fleet. The fleet lay at 
Artemisium on the north of Euboea, where it met the Persian 
fleets and beat them off. But in the meantime Leonidas found 
that there was another pass by which the Persians could get 
round on his rear, so that his little army was quite certain to be 

crushed. Therefore, he sent away all who did not 
Thermopylae. , , . ...... rr , 1 

choose rather to remain and die gloriously. I nree 

hundred Spartans and seven hundred men of Thespiae stood fast. 

They held the pass against the Persian attack till they learnt that 

another column had made its way round to their rear. Then 

they marched out of the pass, and fell upon the countless hosts 

in the open ground, where after a mighty slaughter they were cut 

to pieces. So now the whole country lay open to the invaders as 

far as the Isthmus of Corinth, and the Greek fleet drew back to 



ATHENS AND SPARTA 49 

the bay of the Salamis. The city of Athens was seized by the 
Persians, but the Athenian people were on board the fleet. 

The Peloponnesians now wished for nothing but to keep the 
Persians out of the Peloponnesus ; but Themistocles saw that if 
a great victory could be won over the Persian navy 
their army would become much less dangerous, and 
might be driven out of Greece altogether. He succeeded in 
keeping the Greek fleets together, and forcing on the great sea 
fight of Salamis, which, mainly through the seamanship and the 
valour of the Athenians, ended in the utter destruction of the 
Persian fleet; a destruction which King Xerxes himself witnessed 
from the shore. 

Never had the forces of the great king met with a disaster so 
overwhelming. The countless myriads of his army were in 
Greece, cut off from all their resources. There was nothing for 
it but to retreat before the Greek fleet could sail for the Helles- 
pont and cut off his return. Xerxes and most of his army fled, 
though a sufficiently huge army — three hundred thousand of the 
best troops — remained behind in hopes that they might complete 
the conquest after all. But Marathon and Ther- piataea, 
mopylae and Salamis had taught the Greeks what 479 B.C. 
they could do, and in the next year that Persian army was 
shattered at the battle of Piataea. From that time the Persian 
kings never again dreamed of conquering the Greeks. A 
hundred and fifty years later the Greeks had shattered the 
Persian Empire itself, and the sway of Greek conquerors began 
over all Western Asia. 

Now it must be remembered that the race whom we call 
Greeks because the Romans gave them that name were not 
merely the inhabitants of the Grecian peninsula, or Greece, or 
even of the islands and coasts of the Aegean Sea. Their 
colonies had spread far to the west ; Sicily was almost as Greek 
as Greece itself, and they had many flourishing and prosperous 
cities or states in Southern Italy. The Greeks who were fight- 
ing the Persians called upon the Greeks of Sicily to The Western 
come to their aid ; but at this very time the Sicilian Greeks. 
Greeks had another enemy to fight, or rather two enemies — the 
Carthaginians and the Etruscans, neither of them Aryan peoples. 

D 



5 o THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

In fact, this was a very critical time in the world's history, be- 
cause it was the one moment when there was a very great danger 
that the civilised Aryan peoples would be brought into subjec- 
tion by the non-Aryan races, whereby the progress of the world 
would have been very much checked. It is true indeed that the 
Persians and Medes were actually Aryans, but it is also true 
that their civilisation was borrowed from that of the Semites and 
other non-Aryan races of Asia; it was what we call an oriental 
civilisation, as opposed to the western civilisation of Greeks and 
Romans. Carthage was a maritime state, originally 
Carthage. a co j on y f fo e Semitic Phoenicians ; the greatest 
of the sea-going races of antiquity, in some respects more so 
even than the Greeks. They were a commercial people, and 
their weakness lay partly in the fact that their fighting forces 
were composed largely either of subject peoples or of allies who 
would serve for pay. Happily their attempt to make themselves 
masters of Sicily, in alliance with the Etruscans who were then 
the most powerful people in Italy, failed like the attempt of 
Xerxes to conquer the Greeks. They were overthrown at the 
Himera, battle of Himera, which took place on the same day 

480 B.C. as the battle of Salamis. The Latin peoples of 

Italy were left under the leadership of Rome to break up the 
Etruscan power and establish a Latin supremacy in the Italian 
peninsula. 

We turn back then to the history of Greece itself which 
centres in the history of Athens. We have seen how in the 
short period of eleven years from 490 B.C. to 479 b.c. the 
decisive answer had been given to the question whether an 
3. The Hel- oriental civilisation should overwhelm that higher 
lenic World, civilisation called the Hellenic, because the Grecian 
peoples named themselves not Greeks but Hellenes. The 
Hellenes were not to fall under Asiatic dominion, but would 
a Hellenic Empire now arise which should bring the world 
under its sway? If a Hellenic nation had existed, it is quite 
certain that after the crushing defeats inflicted on the oriental 
invader that nation would have set about the subjection of 
the Persian Empire. The Hellenes had learnt the immense 
superiority of their own efficiency in warfare over that of the 



ATHENS AND SPARTA 5 t 

Asiatics. The separate states showed that they possessed the 
power of organisation in a high degree. They were about 
to display an intellectual brilliancy never equalled elsewhere. 
There was among them no lack of desire for conquest. Never- 
theless, as an actual fact, they did not achieve conquest until 
Alexander the Great led them to overthrow a later Darius; 
and almost from the moment of Alexander's death the vast 
dominion he had conquered ceased to be an empire. 

The reason of this failure is that the Greeks never combined 
to form one nation. Every great city with its outlying territories, 
and perhaps some subject towns, formed a separate want of 
state and had its own system of government, Unity, 
its own ambitions, and its own rivalries with its neighbouis. 
All recognised an entire distinction between Hellenes and non- 
Hellenes, to whom they gave the indiscriminate name of 
'barbarians.' They spoke the same language, with no greater 
differences than those between the dialects of Yorkshire and 
Somerset. They worshipped the same gods, with the same 
ritual. Delphi with its temple and its oracle sacred to Apollo 
•had the same supreme sanctity for all of them. But there 
their unity ended. They were capable of some degree of 
united action against the onslaughts of the barbarian when 
each individual state felt that it must help to shield its 
neighbour from destruction lest its own doom should be 
sealed; but none was willing to move a single step for its 
neighbour's glorification, still less to submit itself to its neigh- 
bour's dictation. It was only in the moment of extreme 
emergency that individual rivalries and jealousies were forced 
into the background, and even then they had come near to 
producing disaster. 

A true unity could have been reached only by the voluntary 
subordination of all to a single central authority voluntarily 
created by common consent, but such a voluntary n state 
union was never fully realised in the ancient world. Supreme. 
The next possibility was that a single state should establish a 
supremacy so marked that the rest would acquiesce in its 
leadership. That did happen for a very short time in the 
days of Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. 



52 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

Even then the supremacy was not sufficiently established to 
become permanent, and even the semblance of unity vanished 
when the supremacy broke down. In one sense, the history 
of Greece from the expulsion of the Persians to the destruction 
of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great is the story of 
the attempts made by successive states to establish their own 
supremacy among the Hellenes, and of the breakdown of every 
such attempt. 

A Hellenic Empire then was never established, because the 
unity of the Hellenic nation was never established. Neverthe- 
The Crown l ess > one Greek state has exercised a supreme 
of Hellas. influence on the world, because it brought forth 

itself all that was best, the fine flower of Hellenic civilisation. 
Athens herself could not have done what she did had she 
not been in the centre of Hellenic life. There were great 
Greeks who were not Athenians, but they would have been 
lesser men if they had not come in contact with Athens. And 
in the Greek states generally there was a fullness, a richness, a 
variety, and a vigour of life, physical and intellectual, which has 
never been surpassed. 

Politically, the great rival of Athens was Sparta, and those 
two states stand in other respects in the most marked contrast 
to each other. Sparta or Lacedaemon was the chief 
state of the Dorian division of the Hellenes. It 
was the typical state which set before itself an ideal of military 
perfection, which trained its citizens primarily to be soldiers, 
which treated dauntless courage and endurance as the first of 
all the virtues. But the full citizens, the true Spartans, were 
only a small number among the population of Lacedaemon ; 
and it was to these that the special Spartan training was con- 
fined. They formed an aristocracy in whose hands lay the 
whole control of the state ; although from among their numbers 
the officers were chosen in a way which prevented the same 
individuals or the same families from remaining in power for 
any length of time. Sparta was the one state in which the old 
kingship had not been abolished, but had the curious modifica- 
tion that there were two kings ; both ruling by hereditary right, 
but having only very limited powers. In short, the government 



ATHENS AND SPARTA 53 

of Sparta was that of a military oligarchy, while its army was 
reputed to be much stronger than that of any other Greek state. 

Athens on the other hand was the typical democracy, a state 
governed by the popular will. There was a general assembly 
which every free citizen was entitled to attend, and Democratic 
the principal officers of the state were appointed Athens, 
annually by a popular vote. We can more easily realise the 
difference between a Greek state and any modern state, when 
we are reminded first that every free citizen of Athens was a 
voter, and secondly that all the voters could be assembled in a 
space where they were at any rate supposed to be able to hear 
the words of a single orator. But while the Spartans proved 
their splendid valour and discipline as soldiers by such feats as 
the great fight at Thermopylae, the victory of the Athenians at 
Marathon had shown the mettle of their soldiers ; and at 
Salamis they had proved their supremacy at sea over all rivals. 
Athens was primarily a sea-power as Sparta was primarily a 
land-power ; and after the rout of the Persians, it was as 
natural that the maritime cities should look to Athens as their 
chief, as that the inland states should look to Sparta points of 
for leadership. Another point in their rivalry Contrast, 
which requires to be noticed is this : in most of the Greek 
states, whether they happened to be under an oligarchical or a 
democratic form of government, there existed a faction which 
was eager to replace the existing form of government by the 
other. The democratic party was always inclined to seek 
alliance with democratic Athens, and the oligarchical party to 
seek alliance with the oligarchy of Sparta. 

One more point of contrast between Athens and Sparta is to 
be noted. Sparta, as we saw, subordinated every other aim to 
the perfecting of her military organisation. The Athenians on 
the contrary strove with equal eagerness to develop every kind 
of activity, to produce and to enjoy every kind of beauty, not 
suffering the pursuit of one aim to cramp or hinder them in the 
pursuit of the rest. Hence, while Sparta gave the world no 
poet, no philosopher, no writer and no artist, Athens produced 
within the short term of one hundred and fifty years a literature 
and an art unmatched in the world's history. 



54 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

In the first hour of triumph there was a strong disposition on 
the part of the Greeks to follow up the victory, and carry the war 
4. The Glory mto the dominions of the great king. During the 
of Athens. war Athens had played the most heroic part among 
all the Greek states, but she had also suffered the most. Her 
territory had been ravaged, her city and its fortifications had been 
The War after wasted by the invader. Inspired by the energy of 
Plataea. Themistocles, the Athenians rebuilt and refortified 

their city and port, before the Spartans, who would have liked to 
keep the rival city open to attack, discovered what was going on. 
Sparta, which had always been recognised as a sort of president 
in the league of the Hellenes, still supplied the Greeks with a 
leader in the person of Pausanias, who had held the command at 
Plataea. In a short time, however, it became apparent that 
Pausanias was seeking his own personal aggrandisement. A 
change became necessary. The war was still a naval war, and 
it was obvious that the Athenians were entitled to the leadership 
by the brilliant services which their fleet had rendered. The 
Spartans were not adepts at maritime warfare, and they 
assented to the principle that Athens should be recognised as 
the leader by sea while Sparta remained the leader by land. 

A League then was formed which included nearly all the 
Greek maritime states and islands in the Aegean Sea. The 
The Delian purpose of the League was to secure the liberty of 
League. every Greek state. Athens was the presiding state 

of the League ; and Delos, the island sacred to Apollo, was 
the treasurer state which gave its name to the League. Each of 
the states which joined it was bound to supply ships and men 
at a fixed rate for the united navy, or if it failed to do so, to 
provide money that the deficiency might be supplied from else- 
where. The Athenians would have the command of the united 
navy. This arrangement was made chiefly owing to the 
confidence felt by every one in the great Athenian Aristides, 
who was called The Just. Afterwards, the great power of 
Athens grew out of this League in this way. The states 
belonging to this League who were less energetic and adven- 
turous preferred to pay for ships and men instead of themselves 
providing them. Athens was always ready to supply the extra 



ATHENS AND SPARTA 55 

ships and men which were thus paid for, and thus the 
Athenian ships multiplied until Athens became incomparably 
the strongest of the states by sea. That is to say, whenever 
any of the states chose to substitute money payment for naval 
service, the payment really went to increase the Athenian navy. 
We can easily see how the habit of making a money payment 
was gradually turned into the payment of a tribute, so that 
the Delian League ceased to be a confederacy or i ncrea sing 
union of states free and equal except for differences Power of 
in their size and wealth, and became instead a * ens " 
group of states of which only a few remained independent, 
while the majority were tributaries and practically subjects of 
Athens. 

There were two things which prevented Sparta from inter- 
fering while the Athenian power was growing in this way. One 
was the revolt of the Helots or slave population of the Spartan 
state, who were kept in a cruel subjection by the ruling race; 
the other was that the great city of Thebes, an ancient rival 
of Athens, had been weakened and punished for deserting the 
Greek cause and helping the Persians ; whereas Plataea and 
Thespiae, both friendly to Athens, had displayed distinguished 
bravery, and had been deservedly strengthened. 

About twenty years after the expulsion of the Persians, the 
great Athenian statesman Pericles had become the leading 
man in the state, and remained in that position — although of 
course he had powerful rivals — for thirty years. It Pericles, 
was the deliberate aim of Pericles to make Athens 460-429 B.C. 
the head of the Greek world, the most powerful state politically, 
the most splendid, and the most cultivated. In his time were 
erected at Athens some of the most beautiful buildings ever 
seen, adorned with the most exquisite sculptures and statuary. 
Most notable was the Parthenon, the work of the sculptor and 
architect, Phidias. The Greek drama achieved its greatest 
glory with the last tragedies of Aeschylus, and the great works 
of Sophocles and Euripides. It was about the time of the 
death of Pericles that Aristophanes, the first of comedians, 
began to write. 

Athens had extended her power among the Greek states 



56 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

partly by the development of the tributary system, partly by 
the punishments inflicted on the cities which endeavoured to 
Jealousy break away from her ascendency, and partly by 

of Athens. establishing colonies of her own in new territories, 
and within the territories confiscated from rebellious states. 
She grew so strong that her supremacy was hardly shaken by 
the total annihilation of a large Athenian army and fleet, which 
had been sent to help Egypt in a revolt from the Persian 
dominion. After this, however, Greek hostilities against Persia 
ceased. Athenian ascendency was not producing Greek unity. 
Within the League, what had once been a leadership acknow- 
ledged as hers by moral right, in the struggle with the 
barbarians, had been turned into a sort of despotism of which 
the first object appeared to be the individual aggrandisement 
of Athens. Outside the confederacy, every state was watching 
the aggressive policy of Athens with jealousy and alarm. All 
the states which were anxious to check her power looked to 
Sparta as their chief, and it was certain that before long a 
determined attempt would be made to overthrow the Athenian 
Empire. 

At last a Congress was held of the states who were opposed 
to Athens, including nearly all the principal cities on the 
5 Pelopon- mainland where Athens had hardly extended her 
nesian War, sway. The Congress resolved to call upon Athens 
431-404 B.C. t0 ii"b era te the subject states and to banish Pericles, 
who was held responsible for her aggressive policy. Athens 
refused to accede to the demands, and so began the famous 
Peloponnesian War, which continued for nearly thirty years. 
We have a very full record of most of the war from the great 
Athenian historian Thucydides. To the Greeks themselves 
this war, which was really a struggle for supremacy among the 
Greeks between Greek states, appeared to be of immense im- 
portance ; of more importance even than the Persian War, which 
had been settled in half a dozen engagements, with the loss of 
comparatively few Greek lives. To the history of the world 
at large, it mattered very much more whether the Greek civilisa- 
tion should be swamped by the oriental, than whether one 
or another Greek city should hold the first place among the 



ATHENS AND SPARTA 57 

Hellenes. The Peloponnesian War was really a Civil War. It 
might have changed the history of the world if it had ended in 
such a decisive triumph for Athens as would have enabled 
her to consolidate a Greek nation in the same sort of way that 
Rome consolidated her power in Italy. It is just possible that 
the triumph of Athens might have enabled her to achieve such 
a result, or that she might gradually have achieved it if there 
had been no war. But she was defeated, and Sparta was 
wholly incapable of carrying out such a policy ; the import- 
ance of the Peloponnesian War lies in the fact that it 
made quite impossible a turn of events which at best was 
improbable. 

The policy of Pericles was to obtain an overwhelming 
maritime supremacy, which should give Athens complete control 
of the islands, and enable her to raid the territories Athenian 
of her enemies by descents on their coasts at her Successes, 
own convenience. Her wealth was not derived 431-421 BC - 
from the soil of Attica ; the city itself, the great port of 
Piraeus, and the communications with the port, were im- 
pregnable. The great statesman himself died before the war 
had been long in progress, but during its early years his 
system was adhered to. There were two memorable episodes 
of this period : one was a terrific visitation of the plague, which 
fell upon Athens in 430 B.C., the second year of the war. The 
second was the brilliant defence of the little city of Plataea, 
which was besieged by the allies, really for refusing to desert 
its friend and neighbour. The Athenians, however, were unable 
to raise the siege, and in spite of its valorous defence, the little 
city was finally forced to surrender, and was destroyed. In the 
seventh year of the war the Athenians captured a position on 
the Peloponnesian coast, and achieved the unique feat of com- 
pelling a body of Spartan troops to surrender. After ten years 
of war a peace was made, and for some time afterwards 
there were no hostilities between Athens and Sparta, though 
a great deal of intriguing and fighting went on among the 
various states, in which both Sparta and Athens were em- 
broiled. 

So far the attempt to overthrow Athens had been emphatically 



58 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

a failure, and her ambitions had become larger. Unhappily, 
she found an excuse for sending a mighty naval expedition 
The Sicilian against Syracuse in Sicily. While this great Athen- 
Expedition, ian force was locked up before Syracuse, Sparta 
415 B.C. again declared war. At the end of two years the 

Sicilian expedition terminated in complete disaster ; the army 
and fleet engaged upon it were annihilated. 

Nevertheless, Athens was not yet beaten ; her subjects and 
so-called allies revolted one after another, and still her arms 
Downfall of were repeatedly victorious. The city itself was 
Athens, 404. torn with dissensions: the democracy was over- 
thrown and an oligarchy set up ; the oligarchy in turn was 
overthrown and the democracy restored. At last, however, the 
Lacedaemonian commander Lysander, owing to extraordinary 
negligence on the part of the Athenian sailors and officers, 
succeeded in capturing a fleet of 170 Athenian vessels at Aegos 
Potami. This was decisive ; almost all the allies of the 
Athenians declared for Sparta. All the Athenian supplies were 
cut off; Athens herself was blockaded, and was at last starved 
into submission ; her fleet was surrendered and her fortifications 
demolished. The government of the city was placed in the 
hands of a committee of thirty, known to history as the thirty 
tyrants. Their rule was brought to an end within the year, and 
the old democracy was restored. The power of Athens, how- 
ever, was completely ruined. 

Sparta was now the undisputed mistress, and her supremacy 
6. Later was viewed for good reasons with greater alarm 

Struggles. than that of Athens had been. From the moment 
of her triumph Sparta degenerated. 

During the latter years of the Peloponnesian War, the Persian 
Satraps of Asia Minor had entered into active relations with 
Greeks in various intriguers, on the side sometimes of one 
Asia Minor. f the belligerents, sometimes of the other. 
Practically, however, they had contented themselves with 
supplying money. Just when the war finished a Persian prince 
named Cyrus resolved to make a bid for the Persian throne ; 
his attempt failed ; but it is interesting, because the army which 
he led into the interior included a division of Greek volunteers 



ATHENS AND SPARTA 59 

or mercenaries, who, after the death of Cyrus, had to fight 
their way across the mountains to the Black Sea and get back 
to the west coast of Asia Minor. This retreat of the 10,000 has 
been made famous by the account of it written by Xenophon. 

The Spartan King Agesilaus began a series of campaigns 
against the Persians in Asia Minor. He was recalled, how- 
ever, to Europe, where the Spartan supremacy was spartan 
being challenged; a disaster befell her arms in a Supremacy, 
quarrel with Thebes, and a great league was immediately 
formed against her. Agesilaus, returning by land from Asia 
Minor, was met by the allies at Coronea, where he was 
victorious. But in the meanwhile the fleet which had been 
intended to co-operate in the Asiatic campaign was shattered 
at the battle of Cnidus, and the Spartan maritime power, so 
recently acquired, was destroyed. 

At this stage, then, Sparta seems to have given up the large 

plans of empire which Agesilaus had probably formed. A peace 

was made with Persia called the peace of Antalcidas, which left 

the great king in possession of all the Greek cities of Asia. 

But the Spartans were all the more determined to assert their 

supremacy in Greece itself, and for a time they Theban 

were able to do so effectively. The successful Supremacy. 

challenge, however, this time was to come from Thebes. Here 

the Spartans had established an oligarchical government 

friendly to themselves. A sudden revolution overthrew the 

government, and gave the Thebans for their actual leader the 

heroic Epaminondas. Now, practically single-handed, Thebes 

challenged the might of Sparta, and the genius of Epaminondas 

won for her a decisive victory at Leuctra. During the life of 

that great man, Thebes became definitely the most powerful 

of the Greek states. The cities and districts which had been 

subject to Sparta were freed from her yoke, and it was not till 

after the death of Epaminondas that the Theban ascendency 

broke down. That great leader fell at the battle of „ 

., . 1 , n Epaminondas. 

Mantinea. Perhaps there was no one among all 

the Greeks who inspired on every hand such unqualified 

admiration alike for his talents and his virtues. He is reputed 

to have been the first master of the art of war who adopted the 



60 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

method of hurling his troops in force against a particular point 
in the enemies' position so as to pierce the line and roll it up. 

From this time no single city claimed supremacy among the 
Greeks, but a new power appeared upon the scene which 
7. Rise of secured the leadership. On the north of Thessaly 
Macedon. l av the kingdom of Macedon, whose princes 
claimed that they were of Dorian descent, though the Hellenes 
of the south did not recognise the people of Macedonia as 
pure Hellenes. They had lacked the high political organisation 
which characterised the city states, but Macedonia was a large 
country; and when a king should arise who had the skill to 
organise it for military purposes, and should enter the arena of 
Greek politics, Macedon was assured of predominance after the 
failure of any large group of Greek states to combine in forming 
a united nation. After the death of Epaminondas, Thebes 
could not succeed where Athens and Sparta had failed. It was 
at this juncture that Macedon fell under the sway of a man 
who was precisely fitted to achieve for Macedon the leadership 
Philip of of the Greeks. There had been kings of capacity 

Macedon. i n Macedon before Philip, and for building up an 

army Philip had the foundations already provided. He per- 
fected that army as an instrument of war, and he was himself a 
general of the highest ability ; an ability inherited in an even 
higher degree by his son Alexander. But Philip was also an 
extremely shrewd diplomatist, who could conceal his own 
designs while penetrating those of his neighbours. He was 
unscrupulous, but was quite alive to the advantages of making 
a show of moral virtue which would cloak his unscrupulousness ; 
and he had no hesitation in playing upon the moral weakness 
of others, and in employing bribery to avoid an unnecessary 
expenditure of physical force. The feuds of the Greek states 
gave him leisure to organise his power, and to bring under his 
own sway the Greek colonies on the coast of Macedonia and 
the peninsula of Chalcidice. Without deliberately setting him- 
self to conquer the Greeks at first, he succeeded in impressing 
on them the fact that his power was exceedingly formidable ; in 
inducing them to recognise Macedon as one of the states of 
Hellas ; and finally, in persuading the Greek states in general 



ATHENS AND SPARTA 61 

to nominate him as general-in-chief, to organise and conduct 

a great war of the Hellenes against the Persian Empire. 

Athens had in the meantime recovered something of her 

former prosperity, though nothing approaching her old 

ascendency. Athens proved herself the most serious obstacle 

in Philip's progress, because in Athens the party which 

was headed by the great orator Demosthenes saw 

™ ... . . , , Demosthenes, 

that Philip was aiming at empire, and opposed 

his aims with all his might. The party was patriotically opposed 
to a Macedonian supremacy, but a Macedonian supremacy was 
now the only possible means to the formation of a strong Greek 
federation ; and this was an idea which now was, in fact, gaining 
ground. The idea of an anti-Persian union was making head- 
way, and the preference of Demosthenes for a Persian alliance 
rather than a Macedonian ascendency probably accounted in 
part for the strength of the party opposed to him. But Philip's 
bribes, direct or indirect, probably counted for more in securing 
him adherents. Philip, however, did not achieve his object 

without an Athenian war, in which the most im- 

. , , . r 338 B.C. 

portant single engagement was the battle of 
Chaeronea, in which the young prince Alexander, a boy of 
sixteen, greatly distinguished himself. The resistance of the 
Greek states which supported Athens was steadily overcome, 
and so at last Philip was recognised as the leader of the Greeks. 
He at once set about organising the projected war against 
Persia, though it is probable that his real intention was to use 
that war as a pretext for consolidating for himself a Greek 
dominion. But whatever his personal intentions may have 
been, they were frustrated by the hand of an assassin in 
336 B.C. 



CHAPTER V 

THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT 

Alexander, the heir of Philip, was only twenty when his father 
was killed. The accession of so young a ruler might easily 
1 Alexander nave ^ e( ^ t0 a com P^ ete overturn of the Macedonian 
the Great, power. The anti-Macedonians attempted to use 
336-323. t k e opportunity. The promptitude of Alexander's 

action, however, averted the immediate danger. He secured his 
own recognition as his father's successor in the captaincy of the 
Greek forces. The great expedition to Asia was delayed by 
disturbances beyond the Macedonian border in Thrace, and 
Alexander's absence there again offered opportunity for revolt 
against the new ascendency. Again the swiftness of the young 
king's movements crushed the insurrection. 

Alexander must have prepared his plan of operations with 
extreme thoroughness. Two years after his accession he had 
Alexander crossed over into Asia Minor with an army of 
invades some 35,000 men to conquer an empire which 

Persia. extended from the mountains of Central Asia on 

the east to Egypt on the west. The character of the Persian 
Empire had not changed. It was not unlike that of the 
Moguls in India when the British Conquest began, though 
the authority of the Great King was much greater than that of 
the later Moguls. The empire was divided into provinces 
ruled over by governors called Satraps. Enormous armies 
could be collected, but their discipline was of a very loose 
kind; the march of the 10,000 Greeks had shown how small 
a force acting under discipline could defy the attacks of the 
Asiatic levies. 

62 



THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT 63 

The western Satraps brought their armies to oppose Alex- 
ander when he crossed the Hellespont. They were routed at 
the battle of Granicus. The districts on the Battles of the 
extreme west submitted to him generally without Granicus and 
offering much resistance. The conqueror at once Issus - 
set about organising the government. The next year the 
Persian King Darius himself appeared in person at the head 
of an immense army in Syria, and the battle of Issus was fought 
just where the hammer-head of Asia Minor joins the handle. 
The Persian army was reputed to number 600,000 men, but 
the nature of the ground prevented the bulk of them from 
being brought into action. The fierceness of the Macedonian 
onset routed the Persian left. Darius himself fled, and his entire 
army soon followed his example. The royal camp, with all its 
riches, fell into the hands of the victors. 

Alexander was in fact determined to make a complete and 
systematic conquest of the entire Persian Empire, and he now 
proceeded to reduce the whole Syrian and Phoenician coast as 
a preliminary to securing Egypt. A stubborn resistance was 
offered by the city of Tyre, which endured a famous Fall f th 
siege, but was at last carried by storm. Darius was Persian Em- 
already offering to surrender the whole of his P ire » 3 3iB.c. 
empire west of the Euphrates ; but when even this was refused, 
the Persian king made up his mind to maintain the struggle, 
Alexander continued on the course which he had mapped out 
for himself, his fleets having in the meantime established a 
supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean, without which a 
capture of Tyre would probably have been impossible. He 
proceeded to Egypt where he was welcomed as a deliverer 
from the Persian rule. In 331 B.C. he made a great march 
from the coast, passing the Euphrates at Thapsacus, crossing 
Mesopotamia, and meeting Darius in decisive battle beyond 
the Tigris at Gaugamela. This great Persian rout is often 
called by the name of an important town, Arbela, some 
twenty miles from the scene of the battle. Again Darius 
fled from the field, and his treasures fell into the hands of the 
victor. 

From thence Alexander advanced upon Babylon which 



64 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

opened its gates to him, and thence again to the great Persian 
capitals of Susa (the Shushan of the Bible) and Persepolis. 
But he could not regard the conquest as complete while Darius 
was still at large in Media. From Persepolis Alexander started 
in pursuit. The hapless king, however, was murdered by his own 
followers before Alexander could overtake him. 

Already Alexander was practically master of the whole 
Persian Empire, except those wild and never thoroughly sub- 
Alexander's dued regions which are now called Western 
further con- Turkestan, Afghanistan and Baluchistan. The 
quests. subjugation of these districts occupied the next 

three years. In 326 B.C. he led his army through the passes 
of the north-west of India, and after conquering the north- 
western region which we call the Punjab he was obliged to 
return, because at last his army would follow him no further. 
In 323 B.C. he died at Babylon, in the thirty-third year of his age. 

The conquests of Alexander, whose career was closed ten 
years after his passage into Asia, were sufficiently astonishing 
What Alex- from a military point of view. In general, no 
anderdid. doubt, the Greek troops under a Greek com- 
mander stood in relation to the oriental levies very much as 
British regiments stood to the levies of the native princes of 
India; and the 'formation' of troops known as the Macedonian 
Phalanx was the most formidable weapon which any commander 
had hitherto wielded. But there were also great masses of Greek 
mercenary troops in the service of the Persian monarch, and 
this makes the actual results of the battles more remarkable 
than they would otherwise have been. Yet, after all, this is 
only to say that Alexander's enterprise was a piece of correctly 
calculated audacity ; and correctly calculated audacity is one 
of the highest qualities of a commander. But it would be 
unjust to think of Alexander merely as a military adventurer 
who proved himself an irresistible warrior. His dream of 
empire was not a purely personal one ; he intended that empire 
to be solid and united, a fusion of east and west. Two thousand 
years have passed since his day, and no one has yet solved the 
problem of fusing east and west. The Asiatic has remained 
Asiatic, and the European has remained European, in whichever 



THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT 65 

continent they have established themselves. The conquests of 
Greeks or Romans, of Crusaders or British, failed as the con- 
quest of Arabs and Turks also failed to destroy the barrier 
which still stands between the peoples of the east and of the 
west. Alexander made the first great attempt to break it 
down. The empire which he won fell to pieces. Nevertheless, 
for centuries to come the oriental peoples were affected by the 
culture of the west more than at any later period, although their 
Greek rulers lost much of their western character. 

When Alexander died he left no heir, and for some years 
there was a long turmoil of struggles between his generals and 
the sons of his generals, each of them striving to 2 p ar titi n 
obtain the lion's share of the empire. In the of Alexander's 
outcome it was parted into four great divisions. Em P ire - 
The Greek dynasty of the Ptolemies got possession of Egypt. 
The Greek dynasty of the Seleucidae got possession of Syria, 
that is to say broadly the regions from the Tigris on the east 
to Phoenicia on the west, including some parts of Asia Minor. 
The bulk of Asia Minor forms the third division, and this 
broke up into separate principalities or kingdoms, some under 
Greek dynasties and some not. The fourth division is the 
Macedonian dominion in Europe, while on the east beyond 
the Tigris there arose a new power to which was given the name 
of Parthia. 

We need not here go into the details of the wars and strifes 
of the Diadochi, as the successors of Alexander are called. 
But we must note the establishment in Asia Minor of the 
kingdom of Pontus and Bithynia on the Black Sea, of Pergamus 
on the west, and also a curious sort of back wave of Celtic 
invasion which created the Gaelic province of Galatia in the 
middle of Asia Minor. A Celtic horde invaded Greece from 
the north; and though it was driven from thence made its way 
back eastwards into Asia, and settled there. 

Seleucus, the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, was one of 
Alexander's generals, who made himself master of the greater 
part of the Asiatic Empire. He thought of Tlie seleu- 
extending his dominion in India, where the cidae. 
Macedonians had not really established themselves, and in the 

E 



66 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

northern part of which a great king named Chandragupta 
was setting up a powerful empire. He contented himself, 
however, by making a treaty with that monarch, since he was 
more anxious to secure his dominion in Western Asia. He 
was the founder of the famous town of Antioch, which he 
named after his father Antiochus ; a city which became the 
real capital of the Syrian dominion. Antiochus was one 
of the favourite names of this dynasty. Antiochus m., sur- 
named the Great, was unsuccessful in a war with Egypt, 
but carried his arms far to the east, and renewed the 
friendship of Seleucus and the Indian Emperor Chandra- 
gupta with Chandragupta's successor Subhagasena, about the 
beginning of the second century B.C. But from this point the 
history of Western Asia comes into the current of Roman 
history. 

We return then to Europe at the death of Alexander the 
Great. Alexander had left behind as regent in Macedonia 
a general named Antipater. While the king was winning an 
empire, attempts were made by various Greek states to shake 

off the Macedonian yoke, but without success. 
Macedon. __, _ , - , , ' „ , 

lhe Conquerors death led to a renewal of these 

attempts known as the Lamian War, but again they were 

unsuccessful. The death of Antipater led to a long contest 

for the kingdom of Macedon. The most famous of the 

competitors was Demetrius Poliorcetes, the 'besieger,' who 

won the crown for a time but was driven out again. Then 

for a time the celebrated soldier Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, 

shared the monarchy, which was divided, but he was turned 

out again after six months. Soon afterwards a member of 

the house of Ptolemy got himself acknowledged as King of 

Macedon. During his exceedingly brief rule the Celts or 

Gauls made their incursion into Greece, after which they 

retired eastwards and established themselves in Galatia. 

Finally, Antigonus Gonatas secured the throne for himself, 

and his dynasty reigned in Macedon until its final overthrow 

by the Romans. 

All this time, whoever was King of Macedonia, none of 

the Greek states was able to break away. None in fact wag 



THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT 67 

sufficiently strong to offer prolonged resistance to the armies 
which one or other of the rivals could bring into the field. Now, 
however, there appear certain leagues of minor Acliaean a 
states which begin to show the value of federa- Aetolian 
tions whose members have no rivalry among them- Lea gues. 
selves for supremacy, but have common patriotic objects. The 
first of these was the Achaean League of twelve cities, in what we 
may call the northern province of the Peloponnesus. It was 
of old standing, but had never attempted to take an active 
part in Greek politics. The League had been suppressed for 
a time, but began a new career of activity under the guidance 
of Aratus of Sicyon. It liberated some cities from the Mace- 
donian yoke, or rather from that of the despots whom the 
Macedonians had placed there. As it opened its member- 
ship to other states, it was joined in a short time by a con- 
siderable number, though others such as Sparta itself would not 
join it. By the end of the third century b.c. another League 
came into prominence, the Aetolian ; and also there was a 
temporary revival of the power of Sparta under its King 
Cleomenes. But still the old trouble went on ; Sparta 
and the two Leagues were all jealous of each other, and 
no general unity was ever achieved, especially after member- 
ship began to be forced upon states who were unwilling to 
join. 

But between 218 b.c. and 202 b.c. Rome was engaged 
in her great struggle with Carthage, known as the second 
Punic War. Before it was terminated, she was already being 
forced into contact with Greece and Macedon, whose further 
history becomes a part of the story of the expansion of the 
Roman Empire. 




THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

to illustrate Chapters VI to VII I 




Emery Walker sc. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE RISE OF ROME 

In the meantime, while Greece had lived through the great 

period of her intellectual and political splendour, another power 

, _ had been building itself up in the Italian penin- 

1. Rome. , , . , . ? * , . i 

sula, which in its turn was to dominate the 

civilised world. The recorded history of Rome and of Italy 
was the work of Roman writers at a comparatively late date, 
though their work was based on earlier records as well as 
traditions. The beginnings of the Italian states, however, were 
clearly later than the beginnings of Greek states, and the 
development was slower. But Rome presents us, as the Greeks 
did not, with the spectacle of a single state steadily and persis- 
tently extending its power and at the same time consolidating it. 
Among' the Greeks the empire or supremacy which they called 
1 hegemony ' exercised by any one state never meant that the 
Contrast with other states were absorbed into it, or became one 
Greek System, with it. The leading state was obeyed willingly 
or unwillingly by the rest, which still remained separate states 
having no sense of unity with the chief. Such unity as there 
was always took the form of a loose confederacy, in which the 
strongest binding force, in the absence of any pressing emer- 
gency which threatened the whole group, was the power of a 
single state to compel obedience to its dictation. Rome, on 
the other hand, produced unity by the complete or partial 
admission of other states to its own citizenship ; by extending 
privileges to them, and by holding out the prospect of their 
becoming not allies or subordinates but actual members of the 
ruling state. 

70 



THE RISE OF ROME 71 

The Italian Aryans entered the peninsula as the Hellenes 

entered Greece in successive waves. Among them we find two 

groups of primary importance which are generally . 

. Races in Italy, 

called the Latin and Oscan or Sabelhan. Looking 

at the map we shall see that Italy is divided into two by the 

great chain of the Apennines, the city of Rome standing on the 

river Tiber midway down the western half. It is in this western 

half that the development took place. 

The Latins, pushing down over the Apennines, found the 
regions on the west of the river Tiber already occupied by the 
Etruscans, a pre-Aryan people probably akin to the non-Semitic 
races of Asia Minor, whom the Hellenes also had probably found 
before them in Greece and the islands of the Aegean. The 
Etruscans were too strong to be conquered by the invaders who 
moved down the eastern bank of the Tiber and occupied Latium ; 
while the Oscans, pressing on behind them, occupied the higher 
lands away from the- coast, and partly encircled the Latins on the 
south. Latium was geographically favourable to the develop- 
ment of cities ; and the Latins, like the Greeks, formed themselves 
at an early stage into a collection of city states. The political 
system was much like that of the Greeks, with a king, a group 
of aristocratic families, and inferior but free clans, and a slave 
population at the bottom of the scale. The power of the 
Etruscans in the north, and the pressure of the Oscan tribes 
from the mountains, caused the Latin cities to The Latin 
form a league ; which, however, implied little more League, 
than a recognition of the necessity of presenting a united 
front to a common foe, after the fashion of the Greeks when 
they went against Troy or faced the Persian invader. After the 
same fashion also the Latin cities were inclined to recognise the 
leadership, but not the lordship, of some one among their number. 

Tradition declares that the city of Rome was founded in the 
year 753 B.C. by Romulus. During the next 240 years seven 
kings reigned, including the founder. The last, 2. Early 
Tarquinius the Proud, was expelled, and the History. 
Romans swore that they would never again submit to the sway 
of a king. Henceforth, what had been the royal office was 
shared by two chief magistrates, called Consuls or Praetors, who 



72 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

were elected annually. Rome began its career as a republic in 
the year 509 B.C., and continued always on the principle of 
The ReD br double magistracies — two consuls,two praetors, two 
quaestors, and so on ; so that there was never 
any one person who could make use of his office to snatch at 
supreme power. At the outset, all officers had to be elected 
exclusively from the families of the nobility, who were called 
Patricians. For some centuries to come there was a protracted 
struggle between Patricians and the Commons or Plebeians, in 
the course of which the Commons gradually won for themselves 
all the rights which had at first been the exclusive privilege of 
the Patricians. A hundred years after the first foundation of 
Rome she had become the chief city of the Latin League. 

Now we can to some extent correct this traditional account 
of the origin of the Roman republic. The point where Rome 
Tradition ^ r as built was marked by the leaders of the Latin 

corrected. League as a valuable position to fortify. The 

city had its origin as a fortress planted by the Latin League as 
a military colony. But if it was the frontier post of the Latins, 
it was also the point of attack both for the Etruscans and 
Sabellians. Now the legend tells us that the first four kings 
were alternately Latins and Sabines, that is, Sabellians, and that 
two of the last three were Etruscan. Further, we find that there 
were three tribes of nobles which were of Latin, Sabine, and 
Etruscan origin respectively. Further, the expulsion of the kings 
was the expulsion of an Etruscan dynasty. The conclusion is that 
the fortress of Rome was a perpetual object of contest between 
Latins, Sabines and Etruscans ; that its occupants had become 
a composite of the three races ; that in the last period repre- 
The Roman sented by the Etruscan kings, Tarquinius Priscus 
Kings. an d Tarquinius Superbus, an Etruscan dynasty 

did actually establish- itself ; and that the expulsion of the kings 
was in part, at least, a revolt against the Etruscan supremacy, 
in which the nobility of Etruscan descent (as shown by their 
names) were as active as Latins or Sabines. 

Now there is another point to be noted. The legend makes 
no suggestion of a hereditary monarchy. It is only when we 
reach the Etruscan stage that an attempt is made to establish 



THE RISE OF ROME 73 

a dynasty. It appears then that the Romans and Sabines were 
still in the stage in which we find the Teutons when they make 
their first appearance. They appointed their chief, who was 
primarily a war-lord, for life ; but his office had not yet become 
hereditary. But in the sixth century, the era when Tyrants 
were seizing the government in so many of the Greek states, 
including those in Sicily, an Etruscan family follows their 
example in Rome. Again, as in so many of the Greek states, 
the nobles combine to eject the despots. It is curious to find 
that in order to avoid the danger of a despotism, the Romans 
hit upon the device of the double consulship, which has some 
resemblance to the double kingship of Sparta. 

Since the Romans loathed the memory of the kings, we can 
trust the tradition which pays them the compliment of declaring 
that Rome was particularly powerful under their The Etruscan 
sway, and lost much of her power when they were Ascendency, 
expelled. It was as much as she could do to maintain her 
independence. For the Etruscans were now at the height of 
their power; they had a considerable navy, and were in alliance 
with Carthage. But thirty years after the date given for the 
expulsion of the kings from Rome, the Carthaginians were 
checked by the Sicilian Greeks at Himera, when the Persians 
met with their great overthrow at Salamis ; and six years later 
the Etruscans themselves met with a disaster at the hands of 
the Sicilian Greeks, which marks the decline of their power. 

Meanwhile Rome had recovered in the Latin League the 
ascendency which she had lost in the first years after the expul- 
sion of the kings. Etruscan aggression was Revival of 
checked for many years, during which Romans Rome's Power, 
and Latins were engaged in perpetual contests with the Oscan 
tribes of the Aequi and Volsci on the east and south of Latium, 
whose power was broken, though not destroyed, at the moment 
when the Etruscans were again becoming active. To these wars 
belongs the legend of Coriolanus, the victorious captain who, 
being banished from Rome, joined the Volscians, and led them 
to the destruction of the ungrateful city, which he nevertheless 
spared at the prayer of his wife and mother. 

The events of the years at the close of the fifth century and 



74 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

the beginning of the fourth, the period of the Peloponnesian 

War and the Spartan ascendency in Greece, have to be extracted 

„«« ■« « from a crowd of legends for which there is no doubt 
Circa 400 B. C. & . 

that deliberate fiction was largely responsible. It 

is clear, however, that the Etruscan city of Veii, which had 

long been a rival of Rome, was finally overthrown by the great 

captain, Camillus ; also the Sabellian tribe were extending their 

power to the southward under the name of Samnites. 

But now a new alien force appeared on the scene. A horde of 
Celts, Galli, or Gauls poured into the northern plains of Italy 
The Celtic beyond the Apennines, descended through the 
Invasion. mountains into Etruria, swept over that province, 

and captured and sacked the city of Rome itself. The legend 
tells how, when the Gauls attempted by night to scale the Roman 
citadel called the Capitol, the clamour raised by the sacred geese 
aroused the sentinel, and the Capitol was saved for the time ; how, 
after long siege, the Gauls were attacked and utterly routed at the 
moment when the city was in the very act of surrender. It is 
not probable that the story is true ; but, at any rate, the Gauls, 
having sacked Rome, did retire, and settled down in the valley 
of the Po, the region which was subsequently named Cisalpine 
Gaul (that is, ' Gaul on this side of the Alps '). 

From this time legend plays a smaller part in the history. 
The Etruscan power was almost ruined by the Gallic invasion, 
History be- but Rome recovered from the disaster with extra- 
comes clearer, ordinary rapidity. Almost immediately afterwards 
she defeated a combination of her old enemies, the Aequi, the 
Volsci, and the Etruscans. Hitherto, she had been merely 
maintaining her position as the strongest of the Italian cities ; 
from this time she began to extend her dominion. 

It is time for us then to examine the constitution of the 
Roman city-state which was destined to accomplish what 
3. The Roman the Greek states failed to achieve. When the 
Constitution. kings were expelled the state consisted, in accord- 
ance with the unfailing rule, of three classes : the Nobles or 
Patricians, the Free Commons or Plebeians, and the Slaves. 
There was a governing council called the Senate, besides a 
general assembly of the Nobles, who alone enjoyed complete 



THE RISE OF ROME 75 

political rights. But before the expulsion of the kings the 
Commons had also acquired the right of meeting in the 
Assembly or Comitia called ' Centuriata.' This was constituted 
primarily for military purposes, and was formed in groups in 
such a way as to give a great preponderance of voting power 
to the wealthier classes. When the republic was established, 
the powers of the king were transferred, as we patres 
have already seen, to elected magistrates. The and Hebs. 
citizens assembled in the Comitia Centuriata were the electors, 
but they could only choose between candidates from Patrician 
families. Plebeians, however wealthy they might be, were 
inferior to the nobles, and marriages between the two classes 
were not recognised. The Plebeians also had an assembly of 
their own, and for the purposes of this assembly they were 
distributed into tribes. The Patricians we saw were divided 
into tribes according to their national descent, each tribe being 
made up of clans or gentes, and each clan of families. But the 
tribes of the Commons were not formed according to descent, 
but according to districts. The city of Rome was divided into 
four, and the citizens in each bore the tribal name ; that is, 
they were enrolled as members of that tribe. Outside the city 
there were sixteen districts and sixteen tribes. 

Now the Commons had grievances of two kinds : political 
and social. They had practically no voice in government, and 
they were absolutely precluded from entering the ranks of the 
Patricians and sharing their privileges. Hence, at The 
a very early stage, there took place what was Tribunate, 
called a Secession of the Plebeians, who threatened to withdraw 
from the state altogether unless concessions were made to them. 
This brought about the creation of the tribunes of the Plebs ; 
officers who had the power of forbidding the actions and the 
decrees of the magistrates or of the Senate ; the power, that is, of 
preventing obnoxious action. 

One very serious grievance of the Plebeians lay in the treat- 
ment of the public land. Besides the private property in land, 

which every one had to possess before he was 

. . . J . _ r , Public Land. 

entitled to rank as a free citizen, there were 

common lands which had belonged to the state ; and whenever 



76 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

territory was taken from a vanquished foe this became common 
or public land. As such it was occupied only by the full citizens, 
that is to say the Patricians. The demand was naturally made 
that the Plebeians should have their share. This principle was 
recognised in spite of great efforts on the part of the Patricians 
Tlie to resist or evade it. An advance was made when 

Decemvirs, a committee of ten, called the Decemvirs, were 
B.C. 450. appointed not to legislate but to put the existing 

laws into shape. The code thus produced was adopted by the 
Comitia, and became known as the 'twelve tables,' a sort of 
Magna Charta or Statutory Declaration of the first principles 
of the Constitution. The conduct, however, of a fresh group 
of Decemvirs led again to a secession of the Plebs. 

The popular grievances by degrees led up to the passing of 
the laws which are known as the Licinian Rogations, which 
The Licinian were ^ ue to t ^ ie determination of the two tribunes 
Rogations, Licinius and Sextius. This law enacted that one 
B.C. 367. consul must be a Plebeian ; it limited the amount 

of public land which any one tenant could rent from the state, 
and the number of sheep or cattle he might graze on public 
land. Further, it endeavoured to release the poorer citizens 
from the pressure under which they suffered, by compelling 
the land-holders to employ paid labour as well as slave labour, 
and by providing convenient terms of settlement for debtors. 
The measure did not succeed in one of its main objects, which 
was to prevent the accumulation of great quantities of land in 
a very few hands. The small farmers who constituted the bulk 
of the Plebeians derived some benefit from the restrictions with 
regard to the public lands and from the reduced taxation, 
because of the increased rents which the exchequer received 
from the leasing of public land. What especially relieved 
Military the earth hunger however, the need felt for more 

Colonies. ] all d by the Plebeian yeomen as their number 

multiplied, was the practice of planting them as military 
colonists where new territories were acquired, in occupation of 
the soil. So long as this expansion of territory kept pace with 
the increase of the rural population, the agrarian question did 
not again become acute. 



THE RISE OF ROME 



77 



Some time earlier, soon after the second secession, inter- 
marriage between Plebeians and Patricians had been legalised. 
The nobles thus ceased to be a legally separate caste. As a 
consequence of the whole period of struggle which a New 
was concluded with the passing of the Licinian Aristocracy. 
law, the contest for privilege and for political power ceased 
to be one between the old Patricians and Plebeians. Politically 
and socially the wealthy Plebeian families began to stand on 
an equality with the Patricians, and a new aristocracy arose of 
the families which by custom and wealth succeeded in acquiring 
a sort of monopoly in the tenure of public offices. The Licinian 
Law was passed just before the death of Camillus, the old 
warrior who had overthrown Veii — whether he had or had not 
also dealt destruction to the Gauls. He appears to have held 
among the Patricians a position very much like that of the 
Duke of Wellington among the English Tories between 1830 
and 1850. The first Plebeian consul was Lucius Sextius, the 
colleague of Licinius in the Tribunate. 

A few years earlier Rome had begun to put in practice the 
method to which, perhaps more than to any thing else, she 
owed the consolidation of her empire. The Latin city of 
Tusculum, a member of the League, ceased to be Admission to 
an independent state; but her citizens received Citizenship, 
the full rights of Roman citizenship, that is of the 381 B0, 
Commons of Rome. They held the right of voting in the 
Roman Assemblies, like the inhabitants of Rome itself; with 
the natural result that they very soon learnt to think of them- 
selves as Romans, almost as a dweller in Kensington might 
think of himself as a Londoner. 

Soon afterwards, in the middle of the fourth century, began 
the practice of conceding to other cities the ordinary rights of 
Roman citizens without the political vote, the cities at the same 
time surrendering their independence; the first 
example being the Etruscan city of Caere. Almost 
to the same date probably belongs the first Treaty of Rome 
with Carthage, which had long recovered its maritime power ; 
a treaty in which Carthage recognised Rome as the sovereign 
power in Latium. 



78 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

The Roman supremacy, however, was becoming alarming to 
the Latins. A war followed in which the Romans were 
4. End of the victorious, and the Latin League was dissolved. 
Latin League. The cities of the League were deprived of their 
independence in many cases, but were admitted to the full 
Roman citizenship as Tusculum had been. Several cities of 
the more southerly district of Campania, which had supported 
the Latins, were given the more limited rights granted to 
Caere. In the meanwhile the Patricians had been frustrated 
in an attempt to ignore the Licinian Law, which only led to 
some extension of the right of Plebeians to the magistracies, 
and a limitation of the power of the Patricians in the 
Comitia. 

Now, however, the Romans found themselves in contact 
with a stubborn enemy, the Samnites. A war broke out, in the 
Wars with course of which a Roman army was entrapped in 
the Samnites. a p ass? the Caudine Forks, and had to submit to 
the degradation of 'passing under the yoke.' The war was still 
going on without showing any marked prospect of a decisive 
victory on either side, when the Etruscans again took up arms. 
They had hardly been overcome and forced to submission, 
when the Sabellian tribes on the east joined their Samnite 
kinsmen. A peace was patched up, but not for long. The 
Samnites with other Sabellians, the Etruscans, and a contingent 
of Gauls, renewed the war. The Etruscans were again forced 
to make peace; and at last the Samnites, practically isolated, 
came to terms with the Romans after nearly half a century of 
indecisive fighting. 

The year 287 is notable for the Hortensian Law, which finally 
ratified a principle which had more than once been enacted : 
Hortensian tnat the Plebeian assembly of tribes could pass 
Law « laws with authority as complete as though they 

had been ratified in the Comitia Centuriata. 

The expansion of Rome was now bringing her in contact 
with the peoples of the south, where the Greek colonies were 
situated. Roman intervention was invited in local quarrels ; 
the opportunity was taken for fresh risings of the hostile peoples. 
The Roman arms were successful, but the intrigues of the Greek 



THE RISE OF ROME 79 

colony of Tarentum were suspected of having been the cause 
of the insurrections. A purely technical breach of treaty rights 
on the part of a small Roman squadron gave the Tarentines 
an excuse for an onslaught on the transgressors, war in South 
The insults with which a Roman Embassy of Italy. 
protest was received at Tarentum compelled a declaration of 
war ; and the Tarentines, who could now count on the support 
of nearly all the southern Italians, including the Samnites, 
succeeded also in obtaining the aid of the most brilliant but 
most erratic soldier of the age, Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, whom 
we have already met with when the Macedonian generals were 
fighting for the crown of Macedon. 

King Pyrrhus doubtless hoped to turn his intervention into 
account for himself by making himself king of Southern Italy 
and Sicily, and turning his new dominion into Pyrrhus, 
a basis from which he could acquire a supremacy 280 BC - 
among the kingdoms into which the empire of Alexander the 
Great had been broken up. He had been called in to the aid 
of Hellenes against barbarians. But the Roman was a very 
different kind of barbarian from those whom Alexander had 
overthrown. Pyrrhus had perfected the formation of troops 
known as the Macedonian Phalanx, a solid mass of heavily 
armed spearmen ranged sixteen deep, which usually proved 
impenetrable to the fiercest charges. On open ground the 
Phalanx proved invincible. Pyrrhus was victorious in a desperate 
battle at Heraclea, which brought him fresh allies. But the 
Roman defeat was not a rout, and Pyrrhus was obliged to wait 
for a fresh campaign next year, when he found on advancing 
towards Rome that the great bulk of the Latins and Campanians 
remained loyal to her. The cities which had been admitted to 
the full citizenship felt themselves to be one with Rome, and 
the rest hoped that loyalty would bring to them a like 
reward. 

The next year brought Pyrrhus another victory, but of an 
even less decisive character ; and in both he had lost immense 
numbers of his best troops. He resolved to let Repulse of 
Rome alone, and try the conquest of Sicily. After Pyrrhus. 
two years of campaigning with insufficient results, he returned 



8o THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

to Italy ; but he attempted an operation against the Romans for 
which the Phalanx was not adapted. Being unable to retain its 
rigid formation it was thrown into confusion, and being once 
penetrated became practically helpless. The defeat decided 
him to retire from Italy altogether. The complete subjection 
of Southern Italy by the Romans was the immediate conse- 
quence of his departure. 

Now that we have reached the point when Rome was 
practically mistress of Italy, we can examine the system some- 
5. The Roman what more closely, and see where its strength and 
System. its weakness lay. The centre of the dominion is 

the city of Rome with the adjacent territories, corresponding 
to Athens or any other of the city states of Greece with its 
adjacent territories. The administration of this state is in the 
hands of a select council, the Senate, of which membership is 
practically permanent. Its numbers are made up at brief 
intervals mainly from among persons who have held high 
public office. 

It owes its powers not to enactment but to custom, which has 
practically given it control of foreign relations. Large executive 
powers are held by the annually elected officers of state, but 
they by custom practically carry out the will of the Senate. 
Both Senate and officers have a power of issuing decrees of a 
temporary character. 

But the permanent legislation corresponding to what we call 
statutes is in the hands of two assemblies, the Comitia 
Centuriata and the Comitia Tributa. Laws are 
introduced in the former by the consuls and in 
the latter by tribunes. The members vote by groups, but 
there is no representation ; that is, any one who wishes his vote 
to be recorded in that of his group must attend in person. It 
follows that all the voting is done only by the people who have 
no difficulty in presenting themselves at Rome and taking part 
in the assemblies. Practically, therefore, the voting is entirely 
controlled by the dwellers in or near Rome. As long as he 
finds himself decently governed, the Roman citizen is satisfied 
with his abstract right to come and vote, which he does 
not ordinarily care to exercise. Dangerous legislation is 



THE RISE OF ROME 81 

held in check by the power of any tribune to interpose a 
veto. 

But outside Rome itself, the cities which have rendered her 
good service have been placed politically on an equal footing 
with the dwellers in Rome. Their citizens can cities in the 
vote if they choose to attend ; they are eligible for Roman State, 
office ; they have all the rights possessed by actual Romans, 
and all the obligations ; but they manage their local affairs in 
their own way. 

On the next plane are those cities which have been granted 
the private rights of Roman citizens, but not the political rights, 
while they have all the obligations. Generally they too manage 
their own local affairs, though in some cases they are sub- 
ordinated to officials appointed from Rome. All, however, can 
hope that loyalty will be rewarded by their being raised to the 
full status of Roman citizenship. They have therefore a strong 
inducement to loyalty. Outside these again are numerous cities 
which are on terms of alliance with Rome, varying in various 
cases. They are so far vassal states that they have no in- 
dependent power of making peace and war, and are liable for 
military service. This group is known as the Allies or Socii. 
With them are joined the two groups called respectively Roman 
and Latin colonies. A Roman colony is in effect a city in 
which there is a permanent garrison of Roman citizens. The 
Latin colonies are large settlements of Romans and Latins 
planted on confiscated territories, partly for military purposes, 
and partly as an outlet for the population. Politically, they are 
on the same footing as the allies. 

Lastly, there remain a comparatively small number of cities 
which are on terms of equal alliance with Rome herself. 

The defeat of Pyrrhus at Beneventum occurred in 275 B.C. 
It caused the eastern powers to recognise as they had not done 
before that a power of first-class importance had Egypt recog- 
risen up in Italy ; and Ptolemy the Macedonian n i s ©s Rome. 
King of Egypt sent an embassy to Rome. As yet, however, 
there was another state with which Rome had to settle accounts 
before involving herself with the east. The Phoenician colony 
of Carthage had been planted about midway along the north 

F 



82 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

coast of Africa in the eighth century B.C., or possibly earlier. 
Carthage soon became entirely independent of the eastern 
6. Rome and empires, carried her commerce far to the west, and 
Carthage. even sent her ships to procure tin from the remote 
island afterwards known as Britain. She had established her- 
self in Sicily; and though her aggression had been checked 
early in the fifth century, her rivalry with the Greek states in 
that island had never ceased. When Pyrrhus invaded Sicily 
his nominal purpose was to crush this rival of the Greek states. 
Eleven years after the departure of Pyrrhus, Carthage and Rome 
were at war. 

As frequently happens, the collision was brought about by 
events in which neither Carthage nor Rome was primarily 
The Rupture concerned. The Sicilian city of Messana had 
in Sicily. been occupied by a force of what were originally 

mercenary troops from the south of Italy known as Mamertines. 
Such a force, owning no particular nationality, no allegiance to 
any existing state, was a menace to the neighbouring cities. 
The King of Syracuse resolved to suppress them. The 
Mamertines resolved to call to their aid either the Romans 
or the Carthaginians. The Romans took alarm at the pos- 
sibility of Carthage becoming possessed of Messana, which 
commanded the strait between Italy and Sicily, and sent an 
army to help the Mamertines. But the Carthaginian party in 
Messana admitted Carthaginian forces. Rome and Carthage 
immediately found themselves at war for the supremacy in 
Sicily. 

This which is called the first Punic War is of interest mainly 
for two reasons. One of these is the episode of the Roman 
general Regulus ; the other is the creation of the Roman 
Fleet. 

It very soon became clear to the Romans that whatever 
successes they might win by land they would not be able to 
First Punic expel Carthage from Sicily while she held the 
War, 264-241. mastery of the seas. The Romans possessed ships, 
but they had made no attempt to build up a naval power. The 
Carthaginians were the most expert sailors in the world, and 
the Romans had no ships which could be matched against 



THE RISE OF ROME 83 

theirs. The Romans set about building a fleet, but seaman- 
ship could not be acquired ofthand. They perceived that they 
could only achieve success at sea by making sea-fights as like 
land-fights as possible; by making them depend not on the 
skilful manoeuvring of ships, but on boarding and a New 
hand-to-hand fighting. They supplied their new Navy. 
ships with machinery which had the single object of grappling 
the enemy's ships and making the fight one not between sailors 
but between soldiers. The novel tactics were successful, and 
when the Romans could succeed in forcing an engagement they 
were generally victorious. But their lack of seamanship caused 
their fleets repeatedly to meet destruction from the winds and 
waves, so that for a very long time they were unable to obtain 
decisive command of the sea. Hence the great fortified ports 
of Carthage were able to defy their efforts. 

It was resolved to invade Carthaginian territory. The army 
under the command of Regulus at first overran the country ; 
but when the Carthaginians set a Lacedaemonian 
soldier of fortune at the head of their troops, the 
Romans met with a great disaster, and Regulus with a large 
part of his army fell a prisoner. The story runs that envoys 
were later sent to Rome taking Regulus with them, with offers 
to restore the prisoners on terms ; but that Regulus advised the 
Senate to refuse the offer, choosing rather to return and face 
what he knew must be a cruel doom than to let his countrymen 
lose anything by saving his life. 

In the closing years of the war the Carthaginians in Sicily 
found a brilliant leader in Hamilcar Barca. At length, how- 
ever, a final naval victory enabled the Romans to dictate terms 
under which the Carthaginians were to evacuate Sicily and to pay 
a heavy indemnity. 

Hamilcar resolved to devote his own life and that of his sons to 
the struggle with Rome, which he saw would have to be fought out, 
until either Rome or Carthage should utterly perish. Hamilcar 
To bring such a struggle to a successful end, he in Spain. 
saw that a power must be built up which would be able to 
act independently of the faction-ridden government of Carthage. 
To this end he proposed to organise a Carthaginian dominion 



84 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

in Spain, where flourishing colonies were already in existence. 
The dominant faction at home was glad to be rid of a popular 
and brilliant soldier, who might become exceedingly dangerous 
if he remained at home; and Hamilcar's departure to Spain 
was readily agreed to. There he steadily expanded the rule of 
the Carthaginian over the native tribes, and trained up his young 
son Hannibal in the art of war. 

Hamilcar died, but his work was taken up by his son-in-law 
Hasdrubal. A few years later he also died. The army in 

Spain acclaimed as its chief Hannibal, the son of 
Hannibal. i; 

Hamilcar, who was now twenty-six. I he govern- 
ment at Carthage did not venture to dispute their choice. 

Young Hannibal was completely possessed with his father's 
determination to wage war to the death with Rome. In 
defiance of treaties, Hannibal found pretext for attacking the 
town of Saguntum on the Spanish coast, which was allied with 
Rome, in the year 218 B.C. ; the Carthaginian government having 
refused to repudiate the action of their young general in Spain, 
war was declared. 

Hannibal presents one of those extraordinary personalities, 
which from time to time stand out in the world's history as 
dominating forces. In the second Punic War we see not Rome 
pitted against Carthage, not a struggle between two great and 
powerful nations, but the genius of one man striving against all 
The Second tne resources of a powerfully organised state, and 
Punic War, almost succeeding in bringing that state to ruin. 
218-201. Roman armies displayed stubborn valour and 

discipline. Occasionally Roman commanders displayed ability. 
The Roman government faced disasters and recovered from 
them with a splendid resolution, and found themselves supported 
by the dogged loyalty of the great bulk of the Italians. But 
Hannibal had to depend entirely on his own military genius, his 
own personal influence, the prestige of his arms, and the devotion 
which he inspired among heterogeneous masses of followers of 
varying races, who were without the inspiration of a common 
patriotism, and received practically no support from the state in 
whose name they were fighting. 

Between the end of the first Punic War and the outbreak 



THE RISE OF ROME 85 

of the second there had been a war between Rome and the 
Gauls of Northern Italy, with the result that Rome had 
planted colonies in Gallic territory. Hannibal's plan of the 
war rested on the natural belief that initial pi an f 
victories on his part would lead to a revolt of Campaign, 
large numbers of the Italians against the Roman supremacy. 
He counted on the active co-operation of the Gauls, and he 
trusted to Spain as the basis from which reinforcements should 
be drawn. He probably knew that the jealousy of the 
oligarchical families at Carthage would make it vain to 
anticipate from Africa energetic support for his own operations. 
The Romans, on the other hand, expected the war to be waged 
mainly in Sicily, on the seas, and in Africa ; but they had also 
realised that for aggressive purposes Spain, not Africa, was the 
Carthaginian basis. The Roman fleet was now so powerful, 
however, that there was no fear of a serious invasion of Italy by 
sea; and an invasion by land, involving the march of an army 
past the Pyrenees, through the wild tribes inhabiting the south 
of France, and across the Alps, did not at first sight seem 
alarming. But the genius of Hannibal surmounted these 
tremendous difficulties. 

The Roman consul was starting with an army for Spain by 
sea when he learnt that Hannibal was already past the Pyrenees. 
He endeavoured unsuccessfully to check the Hannil)al 
advance of the Carthaginian army on the Rhone; crosses the 
but he still counted on the force becoming Alps ' 
disorganised in the passage of the Alps, and despatched his 
main army to Spain, though he himself returned to Italy, 
hoping to crush Hannibal when he came down into the Gallic 
plain. 

In fact, when Hannibal pierced into Italy, he had with him 
little more than 25,000 men out of the army with which he had 
started. Nevertheless, he inflicted a severe defeat Battles of 
on the Romans at the Trebia. The Romans found the Trebia, 
themselves obliged to face an active and brilliant 218BC - 
general on Italian territory, and were forced to conduct a war 
on defensive lines. 

In the next year Hannibal penetrated into Etruria, and 



86 THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

inflicted a tremendous defeat on the incompetent Roman 
commander Flaminius at Lake Trasimene. His policy of 
and Trasi- annihilating the Romans and winning the Italians 
mene, 217 B.C. over to his own side became at once apparent. He 
knew that his own army could not accomplish the conquest by 
itself. 

Counting on his own military skill he was always eager to 
force an engagement on the enemy, reckoning that every great 
victory increased the chances of an Italian revolt. Whenever 
Cannae, he did bring on an engagement he was successful, 

216 B.C. an d tne battle of Cannae a year after Trasimene 

was a massacre of the Roman army. Yet he never felt himself 
strong enough to attempt the siege of Rome, while the Italian 
allies remained obstinately loyal. The Romans, on the other 
hand, in the face of the most terrific disasters, grew only the 
more stubborn in their resistance. Moreover, in Spain their 
arms prospered; Hannibal's brother, Hasdrubal, left in charge 
of that country, was unable to send him assistance ; and from 
Carthage itself none was forthcoming. Hannibal found himself 
cooped up in the south of Italy, while the Romans found them- 
selves able to enter on an active campaign in Sicily. A turn of 
the tide in Spain at last enabled Hasdrubal to lead a fresh army 
The Metaurus, in his brother's footsteps ; but though he penetrated 
207. into the north of Italy, he was intercepted on the 

Metaurus by a brilliant march of the Roman General Nero, 
before he could affect a junction with Hannibal. Hasdrubal 
was killed and his army annihilated. 

For Hannibal the struggle had already become desperate. 
In Spain victory once more attended the arms of the youthful 
Roman general Scipio, and the country was reduced to sub- 
jection. He returned to Rome and was despatched with an 
army against Carthage itself. Hannibal was recalled to face 
Zama, the invader, but in the decisive battle which was 

202 B.C. fought at Zama the victory lay with Scipio. 

Hannibal himself urged peace accepting Scipio's terms. Practi- 
cally, Carthage was to surrender her war-fleet and to be placed 
in the same position as the Italian Socii, managing her own 
affairs, but subject to the Roman suzerainty on questions of 



THE RISE OF ROME 87 

war and peace. Hannibal remained for a while at Carthage, 
where he endeavoured to reform the system of government ; 
but the intrigues of the old oligarchical party, and the feeling 
of personal hostility towards him prevalent in Rome, com- 
pelled him to fly from the country; and with his departure 
disappeared the last chance of the recuperation of Carthage. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
Book il, 500 b.c. to 200 b.c. 

GUIDING DATES 



Greek. 




Roman. 




The Ionic Revolt 


• 499 


Tribunes instituted 


494 


Battle of Marathon . 


■ 49o 


Decemvirs . 


45i 


Battle of Salamis 


. 480 


Volscians overthrown 


43i 


Delian League 


• 475 


Fall of Veii 


396 


Ascendency of Pericles 


460-429 


Gauls take Rome 


390 


Peloponnesian War 


431-404 


Latin League closed . 


385 


Sicilian Expedition 


4I5-4I3 


Licinian Law 


367 


Epaminondas 


375-362 


Samnite wars begin . 


343 


Philip of Macedon 


359-336 


Latin League dissolved 


338 


Alexander the Great . 


336-323 


Hortensian Law. 


287 


Battle of Arbela 


• 33i 


Pyrrhus in Italy . 


280 


Pyrrhus in Macedon . 


. 287 


First Punic War . 2 


34-241 


Achaean League 


. 281 


Second Punic War . 2 


18-202 


War of Rome and Macedon 200 


Macedonian War 


200 



LEADING NAMES 

Darius — Xerxes— Themistocles — Aristides — Pericles — Alcibiades — 
Camillus — Epaminondas — Philip — Demosthenes — Alexander- 
Darius II.— Seleucus— Ptolemy— Pyrrhus— Regulus— Hamilcar Barca 
— Hannibal — Scipio Africanus. 



NOTES 

Greek History. From one point of view, this may be divided into 
the following periods during these 300 years : (1) Contest of the 
Hellenes with Persia, lasting half a century, but becoming desultory 
before the end of that time ; (2) Development of Athenian power 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 89 

under Pericles ; (3) Struggle of Athens and Sparta for leadership of 
the Hellenes ; (4) Spartan and Theban supremacies ; (5) Macedonian 
supremacy and overthrow of the Persian Empire ; (6) Macedonian 
supremacy, after the disruption of Alexander's Empire. Period of 
Achaean and Aetolian Leagues. 

Our Debt to Athens. The western world owes it to Athens that the 
Persian Empire was prevented from expanding into Europe. But 
for Marathon and Salamis, which were her work, there would have 
been no Plataea, and Greece would have become a Persian Satrapy. 
But besides this, Athens permanently raised the intellectual and 
artistic standard of the western world, not only by poetry unsur- 
passed, sculpture unmatched, and exquisite architecture, but by the 
thought of the supreme moral teacher Socrates, his pupil Plato, 
and Plato's pupil and rival- — not himself an Athenian — Aristotle, 
who was himself tutor to Alexander the Great. 

The City-State and the World-State. The development of cities as 
complete states owning no external sovereign was perfected among 
the Greeks, but proved that a different form of organisation was 
necessary for an extended empire. It was not till the cities were 
forced into unity by the country — not the city — of Macedon, that the 
Persian Empire could be overthrown, in spite of its lack of organisa- 
tion. Rome, on the other hand, though remaining a city-state 
herself, broke down the city-state system in Italy, and so was able 
to use her Italian Empire as a basis from which to conquer a world- 
empire. 

The Rise of Rome is to be considered under two aspects : the rivalry 
of Rome with other cities or leagues, leading to her ascendency and 
gradual dominion over Italy, confirmed in her struggle with 
Carthage ; and the constitutional development of the city itself. 
Three race-groups are concerned in the former, the Etruscans, 
Latins, and Sabellians, Rome belonging on the whole to the 
second group, but being also akin to the third. In the latter there 
are three factors to be distinguished : the struggle for political 
rights, the struggle for social equality, and the struggle for the 
possession of land, between the original ruling caste and the sub- 
ordinate tribes ; the principle in each case being resistance to 
privileges and the demand for equality before the law. 

The Outer Peoples. In India, Buddhism was at its zenith, and the 
great Magadha Empire flourished over all Northern India or 
Hindustan, during the third century. Two Indian monarchs of the 
period are notable, Chandragupta, and still more Asoka, a sort of 
Indian Alfred the Great. In China, what may be called a feudal 
system had grown up under the Chou dynasty, which ruled from 



9o THE GLORY OF GREECE AND RISE OF ROME 

about i ioo B.C. to 250 B.C. It was then displaced by one of the great 
vassals who founded the brief Chin dynasty, broke up the feudal 
system, and built the Great Wall which became a permanent barrier 
against the incursions of barbarian tribes from Central Asia. 
Western Europe was overrun by a Celtic invasion, of which a re- 
turning wave seems to have rolled back along the Mediterranean, 
establishing the Gauls in North Italy during the fourth century, 
touching Greece in the third, and finally subsiding in Asia Minor. 



BOOK III 
THE ROMAN DOMINION 



CHAPTER VII 

THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINION 

The overthrow of Rome's great rival in the west prepared the 
way for her expansion in the east. There, in the century 
which followed the death of Alexander the Great 
and preceded the second Punic War, we have seen conquests, 
a development of empires and states which may 200-136 B.C. 
here be recapitulated. In the far east beyond the state of the 
Tigris a new barbaric dominion was developing 
called the Parthian Empire under a native dynasty known as the 
Arsacidae. The Macedonian Seleucidae held the great kingdom 
of Syria from the Tigris to the Mediterranean, corresponding to 
the old Babylonian Empire at almost its fullest extent. The 
Macedonian Ptolemies ruled over Egypt, while Asia Minor had 
again broken up into kingdoms wherein Greek influences pre- 
vailed in various degrees ; very little in Armenia, in Pontus, and 
in Cappadocia, and more in the most westerly kingdoms of 
Bithynia and Pergamus. The Greek cities on the coast and on 
the islands had recovered their independence. In Europe the 
chief power lay with the Macedonian kingdom with which on 
the whole the Achaean League was on friendly terms, while 
Sparta and the Aetolian League were hostile to it. 

Now before the second Punic War began the Romans had 
been brought into contact with Greece by their intervention for 
the suppression of piracy in the Adriatic. At an Macedonian 
early stage of the Punic War Philip the young King Wars, 
of Macedon began to intrigue with Hannibal, and this led to 
counter intrigues between the Romans and the Aetolians, with 
whom Attalus, the King of Pergamus, associated himself. Before 
the end of the Punic War, Philip was intriguing with Antiochus 

<J3 



94 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

of Syria to partition Egypt ; and Egypt, which had long ago re- 
cognised the growing might of Rome, placed herself under 
Roman protection. Carthage had hardly been settled when 
Rome found herself involved in a war with Macedon, in which 
she adopted the role of liberator of the Greeks from the yoke of 
Philip. A decisive battle was fought at Cynoscephalae. Next 
year (196 B.C.), the victor Flamininus proclaimed at the 
Isthmian games the liberation of Greece. 

A fresh challenge now came from Antiochus of Syria. With 
him Hannibal had taken refuge, and had formed a design of a 
War with great coalition against Rome. But Antiochus 
Antiochus, ruined the plan by his distrust of Hannibal, and 

192-190 B C 

by plunging into war prematurely but without 
energy. He entered Greece, but was completely defeated at 
Thermopylae. Antiochus retired to Asia, but the Romans 
carried the war into Asia Minor, which the Syrian king had seized, 
and overthrew him at the battle of Magnesia. By the treaty 
which followed he was compelled to surrender Asia Minor and 
his fleet. Asia Minor was left for the most part under control 
of states friendly to Rome. 

At the same time the northern portion of Italy was subdued 
and formed into a province under the name of Cisalpine Gaul, 
End of and a like fate befell Spain. Philip of Macedon was 

Macedon, 168. succeeded by his son Perseus. An excuse was 
found for making war on Macedonia. The opening campaigns 
brought little result, but at last a decisive victory was won at 
Pydna. Perseus was deposed, and Macedonia was divided into 
four districts which were professedly independent republics, 
isolated from each other by the prohibition of intermarriage and 
of mutual commerce. 

There was now no state in the west which could rank as a 
power. The cities of Greece had nearly all been placed under 
despotic rulers wholly subservient to Rome. In Asia Minor the 
kings humbled themselves before her. In Syria the Jews who 
had long ago been allowed to return to Jerusalem by the 
Persian kings revolted under the leadership of the Maccabees 
of the tribe of Levi against the Seleucidae, and acquired in- 
dependence with the approval of Rome. 



THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINION 95 

Presently an excuse was found in the quarrels of the states of 
Greece for reducing them also to a state of subjection. For the 
time being the cities were allowed to conduct their subjection 
own affairs ; but all disputes had to be submitted to of Greece, 
the Roman governor who was now set over Macedonia, which 
was itself organised as a Roman province. 

Meanwhile, Carthage had been recovering her old commercial 
prosperity. The neighbouring King of Numidia, who had 
helped the Romans in the second Punic War, was encouraged 
to raid Carthaginian territory. The unfortunate End of 
people were forbidden to take up arms. At last the Carthage, 146. 
limits of endurance were passed, and they declared war with the 
King Masinissa. The result was the third Punic War and the 
famous siege of Carthage, in which the Carthaginians resisted to 
the last gasp. It was captured by Scipio, the son of Aemilius 
Paullus the victor of Pydna, and the adopted grandson of 
Hannibal's conqueror. Carthage was levelled to the ground^ and 
a curse was solemnly laid upon its site. The Carthaginian 
dominion was organised as a Roman province. 

This period of conquest closes with the suppression of the 
Spanish tribes, who at all periods of their history have shown an 
extraordinary power of maintaining a resistance to foreign con- 
querors. In the same year 136 B.C., in which Scipio conquest of 
captured Numantia, the last stronghold of the Spain. 
Spanish defence, Rome acquired her first actual territorial 
possession in Asia; when Attalus, King of Pergamus, on his 
death left the Roman people heirs to his kingdom under his 
will. 

The character of the Roman government deteriorated after the 
great struggle with Hannibal. Hitherto it had been marked by 
a high public spirit ; and there was warrant for 2 . The Roman 
the words of the ambassador of Pyrrhus, when he Dominion. 
told his master that the Roman Senate was an Assembly of 
Kings. But splendidly as the Italians and the ruling Deterioration 
classes of Rome had maintained the contest, the of Rome. 
effect of the war itself had been disastrous. It had wiped out 
enormous numbers of the best men that Italy and Rome could 
produce. At the end of fourteen years of fighting the number 



96 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

of Roman citizens had been actually reduced by more than a 
fifth. In the third year more than half the seats of the Senate 
were vacant. Agriculture had long been declining; and it 
almost perished when the whole country was being overrun with 
armies, and the adult population was drained to maintain the 
numbers of the legions. 

But the war was hardly over when expansion began. Roman 
legions and Roman officers were brought in contact with the 
Effect of wealth and the luxuries of foreign cities and foreign 

Expansion. courts. The temptations to extortion were enor- 
mous, as the British were to find them enormous in India some 
two thousands years later. Rome became greedy of conquest and 
of the spoils of conquest ; while the governing class, which had 
by far the largest opportunities for spoliation, became the more 
greedy and the more selfish as it waxed richer on ill-gotten gain. 

Again, the Roman government had developed as that of a 
city. It became little modified while it was still in the main the 
rule of a city over other cities, and it still remained efficient. 
But when the Roman aristocracy found itself providing for the 
Provincial efficient control of great dominions across the seas 
Governors. the case became different. Provincial government 
had actually begun with the acquisition of Sicily and Sardinia 
after the first Punic War. These acquisitions could not be 
governed on the simple method of placing them en the same 
footing as the Italian allies. A governor was appointed to each 
province, having within its boundaries the same sort of powers 
as a Roman consul, with the title of praetor ; but separate 
officers called quaestors were in control of the finances. 
Evidently such powers were largely open to abuse. 

But there was another fundamental difference in the treat- 
ment of the provinces, arising from the conditions already pre- 
Taxation of vailing in Sicily. The Sicilian states had paid taxes 
Provinces. r tribute to the two dominant powers, Carthage 
and Syracuse. They continued to pay taxes to Rome on agri- 
cultural produce, and on both imports and exports. As new 
provinces were organised the same principle was naturally 
applied to them. But they were not required to furnish military 
contingents. Now in Italy the principle had been uniformly 



THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINION 97 

observed of levying military contingents from the allies, but 
imposing no taxes. 

The next provinces added were the two into which Spain was 
divided long before its complete subjection by the second Scipio, 
Here praetors were appointed ; but after this, in- Absence of 
stead of additional praetors being created, consuls Checks. 
or praetors had their powers extended for a second year, during 
which they were sent to administer provinces with the title of 
Pro-Consul or Pro-Praetor. In the transmarine possessions 
those checks were wanting which at Rome prevented maladminis- 
tration by the magistrates. The provincials had no remedy except 
the dangerous one of petitioning the supreme government at 
Rome for redress, when the magistrate's term of office was over. 
Matters were made worse because the taxes were farmed out to 
tax-collectors called Publicani, who paid an agreed sum to the 
treasury, and made what profits they could out of the provincials. 
In case of appeals to the government, the ' publicans ' could 
usually ensure, especially as corruption became more and more 
general, that they would have a favourable hearing from the 
government officials. 

What may be called the revolutionary period in Rome opens 
with the year 133 B.C., and the brief career of Tiberius Gracchus ; 
the year when Scipio was crushing Numantia. For 3 Tte Re 
nearly seventy years the demoralisation of the Sena- volution : 
torial class had been steadily increasing. Senatorial The Graccln - 
rank had long been almost confined to a few great families, 
because the Senate was filled up from those persons who had 
held the great administrative posts, and eligibility to these posts 
was limited by the heavy personal outlay involved in those 
which had to be first undertaken. 

Among the Senatorial families were found many distinguished 
men, who were painfully alive to the deterioration which was 
going on and was pervading the whole of Roman Society. But 
if they were aware of deterioration in the governing classes, they 
did not see a remedy in the restoration to power of the popular 
Assemblies whose constitutional authority the Senate had by 
custom, not by law, come to wield. For as the active functions 
of these bodies had decayed they came to be discharged almost 

G 



9 8 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

exclusively by the dwellers in Rome itself, the city rabble. We 
shall see that in effect the only available remedy was to be 
found in the concentration of power in the hands of a single 
person; since the idea of representation, that is of Assemblies 
composed of elected representatives, had not come into being. 
Neither the Senatorial families nor the Roman populace could 
stand for the Roman people. The revolutionary period is the 
period during which one man after another endeavours to exer- 
cise supreme power till the condition of success becomes mani- 
festly the personal control over the military forces of the state. 

But this was not the revolution at first contemplated. The 
grievances which it was at first intended to remedy were not 
Tiberius political but agrarian. There had been vast addi- 

Gracclms, 133. tions to the Public Lands during the Italian 
wars, but practically these had passed into the possession of 
the great families, although technically the state had the power 
of resuming them. That the state should resume these lands 
and parcel them out among the rural population which had 
become landless was the remedy proposed by Tiberius Gracchus. 
Gracchus having secured his election to the Tribunate, intro- 
duced a law to this effect. The holders of Public Land induced 
another tribune to interpose his veto. Gracchus moved that 
the opposing tribune should be deposed. The vote was 
carried, and then the Agrarian Law was passed. As soon as 
the period of office which made his person inviolable was over, 
Gracchus was killed in a riot by the opposing party. 

A brief interval elapsed before the place of Tiberius was taken 
by his younger brother Gaius Gracchus. But the aims of Gaius 
Gaius were much wider and more revolutionary. He was 

Gracchus. determined not only to satisfy the popular demand 
for land, but also, partly from motives of vengeance, to destroy 
the power of the Senate, and to give Italy a new unity by 
raising the Italians to the full status of Roman citizens. This 
was a demand which the allies had for long been making ; 
it would have the advantage of bringing much public land 
which was occupied by the allies under the operation of the 
Agrarian Law, but it was not desired by the Roman populace. 
The means by which Gaius hoped to force through his reforms 



THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINION 99 

was the retention of the Tribunate for successive years. His 
first measures were intended to secure popularity and personal 
support for himself against the Senate. The extension of the 
empire had brought into being a new non-Senatorial moneyed 
class. A very necessary law had been made pre- The 
venting senators and their families from taking up Equites. 
state contracts. They had put their wealth chiefly into the 
land, but it followed that the commercial wealth had accumu- 
lated in the pockets of a different class. 

Gracchus reconstituted what were known as the Equestrian 
groups or Knights of the Comitia Centuriata, and practically 
created a new Equestrian Order confined to men of wealth who 
were not senators ; and to this order were given important 
judicial functions hitherto held and employed greatly to their 
own advantage by the Senate. To secure the votes of the mob, 
a law was passed by which the state supplied corn corn-doles 
to Roman citizens at less than its market price, and Colonies. 
The popularity of his first measures secured the re-election of 
Gracchus to the Tribunate ; and he proceeded to put forward 
the unpopular but statesmanlike proposal for the enfranchise- 
ment of the Italians, and a further scheme for planting colonies 
of Roman citizens in the provinces. 

The Senatorial party made their own bid for popularity 
through Drusus, a tribune whose appointment they had pro- 
cured. The colonies proposed by Gracchus were to be limited 
to citizens of established character, who were to pay a rent to 
the state. Drusus proposed to plant in Italy a greater number of 
larger colonies where the lands were to be held rent free, without 
inquiring into the character of the colonist. j- a u f 
Gracchus lost his popularity, failed to win the Gracchus, 121. 
Tribunate a third time, and only escaped murder at the hands 
of the Optimates, as the Senatorial party called themselves, by 
seeking death at the hands of a faithful slave, who then slew 
himself upon his master's corpse. 

During these years the Romans had established their dominion 
in the south-eastern region of Gaul or France, 4. Marius 
and in the years following there was a prolonged and Sulla, 
war with Jugurtha, the King of Numidia. His conquest was 



ioo THE ROMAN DOMINION 

effected by Marius, a general who boasted of his humble birth ; 

who was inclined to bid for the position of a popular hero, 

T .. and became a tool rather than a leader of the 

Jugurtna. 

democratic party. The credit for success was 
indeed due more to his aristocratic lieutenant Sulla, than to 
himself. The close of the second century b.c. was marked by 
the appearance in Southern Gaul of an enemy destined in later 
days to play a large part in the destruction of the Roman 
Empire. This was the vanguard of the great migration of 
the Teutonic tribes. Two hordes appeared, called the Cimbri 
The German an ^ Teutones. There is not much doubt that both 
Vanguard. were actually Germanic or Teutonic, though the 
name of the Cimbri suggests Celtic origin. At the outset the 
Roman armies were defeated by them, but they met with 
complete destruction at the hands of Marius and Catulus in 
1 02. The German tide was beaten back for some centuries. 

At Rome the fall of the Gracchi had made matters worse 
than before. The popular party degenerated into pure 
demagogues : the optimates were determined to cling to wealth 
and power. Both parties were unscrupulous, and had learnt 
to include assassination, rioting, and the most flagrant breaches 
of constitutional law and practice as legitimate means to victory. 
The failure of Gracchus to carry his proposals for the enfran- 
The Social chisement of the Italians had intensified their 
War, 91 B.C. dissatisfaction; and now a revolt of the Socii, 
known in consequence as the Social War, once more endangered 
the supremacy of Rome. The opportunity was seized by 
Mithridates, the able King of Pontus on the shores of the 
Black Sea, to challenge the Roman dominion in Asia Minor, 
where the inheritance of the kingdom of Pergamus had given 
Rome a footing. The Samnites, Rome's old enemies, threw 
themselves vigorously into the Italian revolt, which was at last 
beaten down by the military skill of Sulla. The war was an 
exceedingly fierce one, and was in its effects almost as disastrous 
as that against Hannibal, from the immense slaughter among 
the younger men who were best fitted to be the fathers of a 
ruling race. A further physical and moral degeneration was 
the inevitable result. The aim of the allies was in great part 



THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINION 101 

won by the admission of the bulk of them to the Roman 
franchise. 

The brilliant soldier Sulla was now despatched to deal with 
Mithridates, who was threatening to make himself master of all 
Asia Minor. Encouraged by him half Greece rose Mithridatic 
in revolt against Rome. His armies poured into War - 
Greece to support the revolt. Sulla, however, crushed the 
resistance of the Greeks, defeated the generals of Mithridates 
at Chaeronea, and forced the king to come to terms. He had 
to resign all his conquests in Asia Minor, and Sulla returned 
to Italy to deal after his own fashion with the anarchy which 
was there raging. 

The demagogues had won the upper hand. Before Sulla's 
departure for the east the anarchy had broken out; an attempt 
had been made to remove him from his command and give it 
to Marius \ but he had marched on Rome at the head of his 
army, shattered all opposition, and put to death a The 
number of his leading opponents. But on his Marians, 
departure the party of Marius again became predominant. 
There was a reign of terror ; and though the old general him- 
self soon died, his colleague Cinna held the reins of power. As 
a statesman Marius had probably been at all times a mere tool 
of cleverer men. But he understood the business of soldiering ; 
and for military purposes he, when in power as consul, had 
reorganised the military system in a fashion which produced re- 
markable political results. The Roman army was organised as a 
citizen army, in which all citizens were called upon to take their 
share of service. The organisation continued after the expan- 
sion, when the legions were required for service in The Marian 
distant regions. The reorganisation by Marius in Military 
effect provided for the establishment of a pro- System - 
fessional army of men, who were not required to desert their 
ordinary avocations to serve in the ranks, but whose ordinary 
avocation was service in the ranks. Thus there was a standing 
army in a new sense ; and a general who had won popularity 
with his legions, and could command their adherence, was 
master of the situation if he chose to interfere in politics. This 
new fact was demonstrated by Sulla when he first marched on 



102 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

Rome at the head of legions who chose to follow their general 
rather than to obey the orders of the civil government. Marius 
in short had prepared the way for concentrating the power of the 
state in the hands of whatever captain the legions chose to follow. 

Sulla commanded the entire devotion of his soldiers. He 
returned to Italy at the head of an army with which he 
Sulla, Die- intended to restore order in accordance with his 
tator, 82 B.C. own views. A battle close to the walls of Rome 
ended in his complete victory, and made him absolute master. 
No mercy was shown to the opposite party. There was no 
official authority in existence. Sulla required that he should 
be named Dictator, with absolute power of life and death, of 
legislation, of the whole administration. When the business of 
massacre was over he proceeded with the business of confisca- 
tion. The property seized was for the most part distributed 
among Sulla's soldiery. He then went on to reconstruct a 
constitution. Under the new law the Senate recovered its 
powers. No bill could be submitted to the Assemblies without 
The Sullan fi fSt receiving its sanction. Its depleted numbers 
Constitution. were filled up from the ranks of Sulla's followers, 
including the richest of the Knights, and the judicial powers 
which had been bestowed on that body were restored to the 
Senate. The tribune's office was allowed to survive, but without 
the power of veto. Having finished what he considered his 
work, Sulla calmly resigned the Dictatorship, and retired into 
private life. A year afterwards he died. 

There was no possibility of permanence in the Sullan Con- 
stitution. Domestic questions really resolved themselves into 
intrigues for supreme power between individuals who associated 
themselves with the optimates or with the democratic party as 
might seem convenient for the time. At first the two most 
prominent figures are those of Gnaeus Pompeius, a young man 
who succeeded in acquiring a very high military reputation, and 
Crassus, who owed his power mainly to his wealth. The 
republic was engaged in three wars. The one really able 

member of what had been the Marian party, 
Sertorius. ~ . , „, ...... .... 

Sertonus, raised Spain, allied himself with a sort 

of pirate confederacy whose ships were sweeping the Mediter- 



THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINION 103 

ranean, and defied the Roman government. Sertorius proved 
himself a match for the republican generals, Pompeius and 
Metellus; but the war was practically brought to an end by 
his assassination. In the east Mithridates of Pontus renewed 
the struggle. The successes of the able Roman commander 
Lucullus were neutralised by the blunders of his lieutenants, 
and the pirates still held the seas. In Italy a sundry- 
great revolt of slaves headed by the gladiator Wars. 
Spartacus was with great difficulty suppressed by Crassus. 
Pompeius returned from Spain at the head of his legions, with 
the credit of having overthrown Sertorius. Crassus was at the 
head of the army which had finally crushed Spartacus. Lucullus 
was still in the east, where he was making himself extremely 
unpopular with the most influential Romans by reforms in the 
system of government of the Roman provinces of Asia, that is 
to say, Western Asia Minor. 

Neither Pompeius nor Crassus had any affection for the 
optimates ; they came to an agreement and formed a coalition 
with the democratic party. They restored the 5, Julius 
old powers of the Tribunate, including that of Caesar, 
introducing bills without the assent of the Senate, But they 
went no further in the direction of democracy. Pompeius, in 
fact, inclined to revert to an alliance with the p ompe y ( 
optimates, while Crassus was falling under the Crassus, 
influence of young Julius Caesar, who, with his and Caesar ' 
own ends in view, had attached himself to the popular party. 
Pompeius, however, was strong enough to obtain for himself 
appointments first for crushing the Pirates, and, when he had 
accomplished this successfully, for putting an end to the 
Mithridatic War. This latter commission was practically 
extended into one for settling the affairs of p mpey 
the east generally, including therein the annexation in tne East, 
of Syria. These various operations kept Pompeius in the east 
till the year 62 B.C., but before he returned his arrangements 
had extended the Roman Empire to the Euphrates, and to 
Armenia ; though within those boundaries some dependent 
princes were recognised. Beyond the Euphrates the Parthian 
dominion was acknowledged. Egypt was the one civilised 



io4 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

state which was not yet formally included in the Roman 
dominion. 

During the absence of Pompeius in the east, Rome was 
able to congratulate herself on the suppression of a great 
Catiline, conspiracy of the extreme section of the popular 

63 Bc - party. Neither Crassus nor Caesar can be proved 

to have taken a share in the schemes of Catiline, though both 
were strongly suspected of complicity. Catiline, however, 
appears to have aimed simply at a violent revolution with a 
redistribution of property as its main object. Such a design 
could not have been favourably viewed by Crassus, and could 
hardly have appealed to the ambitions of Caesar. The plot 
was betrayed; Catiline's followers rose in arms, but they were 
few in number, and were crushed after a fierce engagement in 
which no quarter was given. Catiline himself fell in the fight, 
and those of his party who were captured were executed by 
a stretching of the prerogatives of the Senate, against which 
Caesar duly protested. Nevertheless, the great orator Cicero, 
who was consul at the time, was careful emphatically to acquit 
Caesar of any complicity. 

The nomination of Pompey to the extraordinary commands 
of the east, carrying with them almost unprecedented powers, 
was a long step towards the creation of a military monarchy ; 
although Pompey himself had no inclination to grasp at 
empire. At the moment of Pompey's return Caesar departed 
to Spain as propraetor; on his return he found Pompey had 
failed to please any of the parties of the state, and he promptly 
Rise of drew both Pompey and Crassus into alliance with 

Julius Caesar, himself. With their support he succeeded, having 
secured the consulship, in passing measures calculated to 
secure the support of the populace and of the Equestrian Order ; 
while for himself he secured the governorship of Cisalpine 
Gaul for five years on the termination of his consulship. This 
command was subsequently extended for a second period of 
five years. These years were occupied in the steady subjuga- 
tion of the whole of Gaul, and two incidental visits to the shores 
of Britain, where however he made no attempt at a conquest. 
Meanwhile, Crassus received a five years' command in the east, 



THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINION 105 

where his armies were destroyed by the Parthians and he himself 
perished. A breach developed and widened between Caesar 
and Pompey, who now saw the man whom he had regarded as 
a useful assistant growing into a dangerous rival. 

In Caesar's absence the Senatorial party and Pompey were 
more and more drawn together by their common fear of Caesar. 
Caesar's governorship terminated nine months before he could 
again be elected to the consulship. But also there was no 
means of filling up the governorship, which he party 
would naturally continue to hold until a new Intrigues, 
appointment could be made. The optimates attempted by a 
technical device to compel Caesar to return to Rome before 
the consular election. This would have placed him at their 
mercy. Finally, w T hen Caesar found that unless he could dictate 
his own terms at the head of his own troops his destruction was 
certain, he set the law at defiance and marched his legions 
across the Rubicon, the stream which was the boundary of his 
province, into Italy proper. 

Rome lay at his mercy, but Pompey hurried across the 
Adriatic and summoned the provincial armies to crush the 
'enemy of the republic' In the war which Triumph of 
followed, Caesar overthrew Pompey at the battle Caesar, 48 B.C. 
of Pharsalia. The defeated general fled to Egypt whence 
he still hoped to make head against his rival, but even 
as he stepped on shore he was slain by the dagger of an 
assassin. 

When Caesar had marched on Rome, and Pompey had with- 
drawn across the Adriatic, Caesar had thought it best, before 
starting on his campaign against Pompey, to make a swift 
descent on Spain, which was quickly brought into submission. 
Now though Pompey was slain, the Pompeians rallied in Africa. 
Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, was making trouble in Asia, 
and insurrections were threatening in all quarters. Caesar had 
pursued his rival to Egypt only to learn of his assassination. 
Delayed there for a time, he marched against Pharnaces whom 
he crushed. Thence he hurried back to Italy where his com- 
bined vigour and leniency rapidly quelled the threatening dis- 
turbance. Then he crossed to Africa, where he utterly shattered 



106 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

the forces of the Pompeians at Thapsus. Again he returned to 
Rome; but Spain rose in revolt, led by one of Pompey's sons, 
against the governor whom he had previously left in charge. 
Again, therefore, Caesar had to take the field, and finally 
overthrew his enemies at the battle of Munda, one of the 
hardest fought engagements in which he ever took part. Once 
more he returned to Rome, but with the prospect before him of 
having to lead the forces of the empire against the Parthians. 
He was publicly offered a royal crown; but, gauging the popular 
sentiment, he refused what he was doubtless willing to accept. 

But the rule of a single man was traditionally hateful to the 
Romans ; a conspiracy was formed partly of enthusiasts, who 
Murder of imagined that a republic meant liberty and 
Caesar, 44 B. C. monarchy meant slavery; partly of ambitious men 
who hoped to profit by revolution ; and partly of those whom 
mere party spirit impelled to the overthrow of a triumphant 
opponent. On March 15th, Caesar was assassinated, and once 
more the Roman world was rent with civil broils. 

Five years passed between the crossing of the Rubicon 
and the death of Caesar. During those years he had conducted 
a campaign in Spain, another in the Grecian peninsula, an- 
other in Asia, another in Africa, and yet another in Spain. 
What Caesar His political work was done in the intervals. He 
did - had only begun the mighty task which he had set 

himself. In the years that followed his death, what he had 
accomplished appeared to be wiped out. Nevertheless, he had 
created the Roman Empire. He had designed the edifice, 
and it was on the foundations he had laid that his adopted son 
raised the great structure. His supreme, genius triumphed in 
spite of his death. The old order was ended. A restoration 
of the Senatorial power was impossible. An absolute monarchy 
ruling through constitutional forms, treating the empire as a 
Commonwealth, not as a mere appanage of the Imperial city, 
was to replace the old system. Hitherto, the triumph of one 
leader over another had meant the triumph of a party, and had 
been turned to account to penalise the members of the opposing 
party. Caesar, though he had risen to power as a democrat, 
discarded partisanship when he grasped supreme dominion. 



THE EXPANSION OF ROMAN DOMINION 107 

He crushed the enemies who were in arms against him ; but 
when they were crushed he pardoned them, and forgot that 
they had been his enemies, with a magnanimity to which they 
did not respond. To gain power he had not been ashamed to 
employ the arts of the demagogue ; having won it, he used it 
for the public welfare without fear or favour. He was master, 
and his mastery enforced even-handed justice. 

Even during the brief periods of time that Caesar was able 
to pass in Rome, his hand was felt in every department of 
government. He was appointed Perpetual Dictator, Caesar's 
and all the officers of state became his nominees ; Measures. 
but the appointments, including his own, were made in accord- 
ance with republican forms. He reorganised the Senate, 
adding to it large numbers of the non-Senatorial class. He 
limited the system of free distribution of corn, into which the 
cheap distribution initiated by Gracchus had degenerated. But 
for the purposes of the new empire the most important changes 
he introduced concerned the provinces. He successfully carried 
out that planting of large colonies of Roman citizens of which 
Gracchus had dreamed, and he extended the Roman citizenship 
among the provincials themselves. But, most important of all, 
the irresponsibility of provincial governors was brought to an 
end. Under the republican system the provincial governor- 
ships followed upon offices held in Rome as a matter of course ; 
and the governors were prone simply to use their term of office 
for the replenishment of their own pockets. Now the governors 
were selected and appointed by Caesar himself, and were 
responsible to Caesar for doing their duty in the governorship. 
Lastly, both in the provinces and the army subordinate officers 
were appointed by Caesar himself, and were responsible to him 
instead of being the creatures of generals and proconsuls. 

Caesar's two principal officers in Italy at the time of his 
murder were Lepidus and Marcus Antonius. But among the 
men whom he had nominated for governorships were not a few 
of the conspirators, and no man could tell into whose hands 
the supreme power would now fall. To these various candidates 
for power was added the youthful Octavianus, whom Caesar had 
adopted as his heir. The conspirators intended to restore the 



10S THE ROMAN DOMINION 

Senatorial republic ; Anthony intended to grasp for himself 
the succession to Caesar. A civil war was soon raging, 
The Rivalry in which Anthony, Lepidus, and Octavian formed a 
for Empire. coalition against the party of the conspirators headed 
by Brutus and Cassius. The Triumvirate, as the three who 
had joined together were called, crushed Brutus and Cassius at 
the two battles of Philippi, and parcelled out the empire 
between them. Anthony took the east, Octavian took the 
west, and Lepidus had to be content with the province of 
Africa — that which had been constructed out of the Carthaginian 
domain. But such a partition could not endure. Lepidus 
counted for nothing; but neither Octavian nor Anthony was 
satisfied, and war broke out between them. Anthony had 
fallen completely under the spell of Cleopatra, the Queen of 
Egypt. Octavian had, in his loyal friend and favourite 
Agrippa, a first-rate commander as well as an exceedingly capable 
minister. Anthony's fleets were overwhelmed in a great sea-fight 
at Actium, and when the victorious Octavian pursued him to 
Egypt both he and Cleopatra slew themselves. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

After the death of Anthony and Cleopatra, Egypt was formally 
annexed to the Roman dominion, and Octavian returned to 
Rome the undisputed lord of the whole civilised i. The Em- 
world. In effect Rome claimed to rule over all P ire - 
Europe west of the River Rhine or south of the River Danube ; 
over Asia as far as the Euphrates, leaving out Arabia; over 
Egypt and Northern Africa between the deserts and the 
Mediterranean Sea. 

Honours and titles were conferred on the victor by the 
Senate. The personal title of Augustus is the one by which 
he is henceforth distinguished, though it was The Titles 
conferred also on his successors. The title of of Augustus, 
Imperator, implying the supreme military authority, B0, 27> 
became permanently established and still survives in the form 
of Emperor. The family name of Caesar was also retained by 
all his successors. But Augustus preferred to give prominence 
to titles which did not imply power but did imply dignity ; 
therefore he was known as Princeps, meaning probably the 
'first citizen'; and it is now customary to apply the term 
Principate to the Imperial Office during the earlier period. 
Later, when the military character of the government became 
more prominent, the military title of Imperator displaced that 
of Princeps. 

It was the business of Augustus to establish the system of 
which the design had been outlined and the foundations laid 
by Julius Caesar. But Julius had challenged hostility by his 
open assumption of absolute authority. Augustus saw that the 

109 



no THE ROMAN DOMINION 

absolute authority was necessary, but that it must be veiled. 
He must present himself merely as the first citizen, tem- 
porarily endowed with exceptional powers for the 
good of the state, to be laid down when their 
exercise was no longer necessary. The Senate was treated 
officially as the seat of authority. And to the Senate were 
practically transferred by degrees the powers of the Assemblies ; 
but, as a matter of fact, the princeps held the Senate in the 
hollow of his hand. It was filled partly by those who had 
held the magistracies, partly by nominees of the princeps ; 
but since he also nominated for the magistracies candidates who 
were invariably elected, the great bulk of the senators were 
people who owed their rank to the emperor; and in course 
of time he acquired the right of removing the senators from 
the list. 

But beyond this he had conferred upon him the tribunician 
power by which he could initiate or veto legislation, and the 
Tribunician proconsular power which gave him the control of 
and Procon- the armies of the state. This requires some 
sular Power, explanation. The provinces were divided into 
three groups : the Senatorial provinces, the Imperial provinces, 
and recently acquired territories such as Egypt and Judea, 
which were theoretically attached to what we may call the 
Crown, the princeps taking the place of the deposed dynasty. 
Now the Senatorial provinces were those which had long 
formed a portion of the Roman dominion ; they were, so to 
speak, the inner circle, within which no foreign hostile powers 
existed ; they needed no armies. But the outer circle or 
frontier provinces, unlike the inner circle, required armies for 
defence, as well as, on occasion, for aggression. The pro- 
consul had command of the armies in his province, but the 
princeps was himself appointed proconsul of all these provinces 
which were in fact ruled by his legati or lieutenants. The 
third group of which we have spoken were similarly ruled by 
the emperor's viceroys or lieutenants called Praefecti or 
Procuratores. Thus all the actual armies of the state were 
entirely outside the control of the Senate, and within the control 
of the princeps. 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE in 

At first these armies consisted of the regular Roman legions 
composed of Roman citizens, and of an approximately equal 

number of local levies. It will be convenient 

The Armies, 
to remember that in numbers the legion corre- 
sponded roughly to what we call a brigade, divided into cohorts 
which were the equivalent of regiments. But whereas with us 
a brigade is a group of regiments, with the Romans the cohort 
was a division of the legion. The legion was the unit, whereas 
with us the regiment is the unit. 

Of very great importance also was the institution of a 
privileged body of troops called the Praetorian Guard, under 
an officer called the prefect, who held his appoint- ThQ Prae 
ment from the princeps. This was theoretically torian 
the force behind the government for the control Guard - 
of the capital. But it was the one powerful military body at 
the headquarters of government; and it was not long before 
it found itself able to exercise a decisive control, whenever 
it was disposed to intervene, on the succession to the 
Principate. 

This then was the organisation which made the princeps 
absolute master of the whole Roman state. Its weakest point 
lay in what was at the outset the necessity of pretending that 
Augustus had saved and restored the republic, which Anthony 
had threatened to transform into an oriental despotism. The 
despotism of Augustus had to pass itself off as nothing more 
than a temporary authority conferred on an individual to deal 
with a prolonged emergency. In the nature of things Augustus 
was barred from making open provision for the Tlie g ucces _ 
establishment of a dynasty ; and matters were sion to the 
made worse by the failure of heirs of his body, and Pnnci P ate - 
the difficulty of arriving at any principle for establishing the 
course of succession. At his death the problem was solved for 
the time by the fact that his kinsman Tiberius was associated 
with him in the possession of the tribunician and proconsular 
powers, so that if any attempt had been made to resist his 
succession he could have secured it by force. Theoretically, 
the succession went by the election of the Senate ; practically, 
if the Praetorian Guard had a mind to override the election of 



ii2 , THE ROMAN DOMINION 

the Senate they could do so; and a time came when the 
legions in distant provinces put forward their own candidates 
when it seemed good to them to do so. The strongest title, 
however, generally lay, as in the case of Tiberius, with some 
one who had been associated with the emperor, at the time of 
his death, in the possession of the tribunician and proconsular 
powers. 

Augustus sought to use his power for the welfare of the state. 

Except on the frontiers the Roman Empire was at peace. The 

Augustan age is proverbial as the period when 

Augustus, Roman literature and art were at their best. 

B.C. 29- Augustus fell far short of the unmatched genius 

A D 14 . 

of the great Julius Caesar; but he was patient, 
cautious, resolute, and clear-headed, and was endowed with 
a tact which rarely failed. In Maecenas he had a minister 
whose tact was still more conspicuous, and in Agrippa one of 
supreme integrity, of an organising skill which matched his own, 
and of the highest military ability. Hardly less valuable 
were the services of Tiberius, who ultimately succeeded him 
as emperor. 

The accession of Tiberius was undisputed, though accompanied 
by a formal show of reluctance on his part. His rule lasted for 
Tiberius, something over twenty years, and he succeeded in 

A.D. 14. acquiring a particularly evil name. Roman society 

was exceedingly corrupt, and most corrupt was the Court. In 
his last years Tiberius himself sank to the most repulsive 
debauchery. Rome swarmed with informers who lived on 
rewards for bringing charges of treason against their neighbours, 
and the system was practically encouraged by the emperor. 
But Tiberius is judged by the hideous state of affairs at Rome. 
A morose tyrant within his immediate surroundings, Tiberius 
nevertheless was no bad ruler of the empire as a whole. His 
real statesmanship had been proved before he assumed the 
Imperial Purple. But he died — probably he was murdered — 
His six m A - D - 37', anc ^ until the sceptre was seized by 

Successors. Vespasian in a.d. 70, it is impossible to find a 
word of praise for any one of the six emperors who intervened, 
except perhaps Galba, who was merely incompetent. Tiberius 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 113 

was succeeded by his great-nephew Gaius, who is familiarly 
known as Caligula ; who was a madman. He was murdered 
and was succeeded by his uncle Claudius, who was feeble- 
minded. Claudius was succeeded by Nero, who stands for 
all time as the type of a bloodthirsty tyrant. Galba, an aged 
general, led his legions from Spain to overthrow the tyrant, 
who perished by his own hand. But Galba was overthrown 
by the praetorians who made Otho emperor. Otho was over- 
thrown by the troops of Vitellius, and Vitellius was overthrown 
by Vespasian. 

Every Emperor down to Nero had become a member of the 
Imperial family by adoption. Augustus himself had been adopted 
by Julius Caesar, and had adopted his own step-son The Julian 
Tiberius, and so on. This group therefore are called Emperors. 
the Julian Emperors. The principal extension of frontiers which 
took place during their rule was the partial conquest of Britain 
under Claudius. Attempts were made by frontier officers to 
conquer more German territory, but these attempts were success- 
fully resisted by the Teutonic Tribes under the leadership of the 
chief whom the Romans called Arminius. Caligula, Claudius, 
and Nero, all owed their election to the Praetorian Guard. The 
first was chosen because he was the son of a popular soldier who 
was supposed to have been foully done to death. The second 
was caught hiding behind a curtain and was acclaimed emperor 
half in jest. For the third, Nero, the support of the praetorian 
officers had been secured beforehand. The wars following on 
Nero's deposition, ended by the accession of Vespasian, gave a 
more military turn to the supreme government ; since the success- 
ful emperor had no possible claim to the succession except the 
fact that he was the chosen candidate of the legions he com- 
manded in the east. 

Titus Flavius Vespasianus was of plebeian birth, but he was 
an able soldier and a shrewd man of business. He restored 
order, and stopped the extreme corruption which Tlie pi av i an 
prevailed in the heart of the empire. His reign is Emperors, 
notable for the destruction of Jerusalem by his son ' ' " ' 
Titus, and the scattering of the Jews, who preserved their unity 
as a separate people whithersoever they might be driven, but 

H 



ii 4 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

never again possessed a National habitation. Vespasian was 
followed by his two sons Titus and Domitian in succession. Titus 
in his brief reign of two years won popularity by his lavish gener- 
osity, but Domitian developed into a cruel tyrant. With his 
murder ended the Flavian dynasty. 

The empire had now been in existence for about a century 
and a quarter. Now for nearly a century ruled the five good 
The good emperors. They were not the choice of the legions, 

Emperors, but of the Senate ; nor were they Italians. The 
96-180 ad. £ rg ^ N ervaj was of a Cretan family. He was already 
an old man, and in himself he had neither the vigour nor the 
reputation needed to make his position a strong one. But he 
at once took the shrewd step of adopting as his heir the great 
general Trajan, who held the command in the provinces on the 
Rhine. 

Trajan's great abilities and high character were well known. 
In view of his inevitable succession, the strength of Nerva was 
the strength of Trajan. But little more than a year elapsed 
before Nerva died, and Trajan reigned in his stead. 

Trajan was of Spanish origin, but he was a representative of 
the best type of Roman. With high abilities and reputation as 
a soldier, with great ambition to extend the empire 
of which he was the head, he was also a man of 
unusual personal virtue, with a resolute determination to do 
justice and maintain law. Trajan extended the empire across 
the Danube where he created the new frontier province of Dacia. 
His last years were spent in an unfortunate attempt to carry the 
arms of Rome beyond the Euphrates into the Parthian dominion. 
He did indeed set up a new province, but he died without 
making his conquest effective. He was succeeded without demur 
. by his kinsman and lieutenant Hadrian, who wisely 

declined to retain this latest addition to an empire 
already sufficiently large, and also again withdrew the Roman 
legions behind the Danube; though not until he had demon- 
strated to the insurgent tribes of the Dacians that Rome had the 
power to smite them though she had not the inclination to 
expend her energies in governing them. Hadrian was especially 
distinguished by the fact that during his reign he succeeded in 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 115 

visiting personally every portion of his empire from Britain itself 
to the confines of Parthia. He proved himself a great ruler, 
though the irritability of a painful disease led him in his last 
years to sundry acts of personal tyranny. 

He had adopted, or in other words nominated as his successor, 
Antoninus Pius, who in his turn adopted Marcus Aurelius 
Antoninus. For a time the world was governed by The 
two emperors, who were also philosophers ; and Antonines. 
perhaps better governed than at any other period. The two 
Antonines made the welfare of their subjects their primary aim, 
and made no attempt to expand the empire; though Marcus 
Aurelius himself was constantly compelled to wage war on the 
frontiers against the wild tribes which were now pressing south- 
wards and westwards with increasing vigour, impelled forwards 
by the still wilder tribes behind them. 

Here we must pause to observe that the establishment of the 
Roman Empire was silently accompanied by an unsuspected 
revolution of no less importance even in the political 2. Chris- 
history of the world. This was the birth and growth tianity. 
of Christianity. The Roman state tolerated all religions. It 
permitted the worship of all manner of gods as freely as we do 
to-day in our vast empire. But the one thing it would not 
tolerate was a religion directed against the authority of the state, 
and it was the conviction that Christianity sought to subvert the 
state which led to the persecution of the professors of the new 
faith. The years of our Lord's ministry in Judaea fell in the 
latter part of the reign of Tiberius. Outside Judaea itself the 
new teaching attracted little attention from the rulers. It was 
addressed mainly to the humbler classes, and was not readily 
intelligible to those who were not familiar with Jewish doctrines. 
Its austere morality, while it appealed intensely to unpopularity 
the noblest types of mind, was irritating to a society of 
which, given over to sensual indulgence and devoid Clirlstians ' 
of spiritual ideals, was at the same time the ready victim of 
the grossest superstitions. The doctrine of a brotherhood as 
open to the slave as to the free man was incredible : the practice 
of the community of goods was intolerable. If the state tolerated 
all religions it did not trouble itself to prevent the private perse 



n6 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

cution of a religious body, and the Christians were always 
subjected to a severe social persecution. But they began also 
to be charged by their enemies with the commission of foul crimes 
in the performance of their religious rites, and rumours were 
spread abroad that their doctrines were subversive of all social 
and political order. When a great part of the city of Rome 
was destroyed by a terrific fire in the reign of the emperor Nero, 
it was easy to lay the guilt upon the obscure followers of the 
unpopular sect. 

The state tolerated all religion, but it had introduced a new 
religion of its own by deifying the emperors and the state itself. 
Reasons for This worship was purely formal. It meant no more 
Persecution. t h an taking an oath of allegiance means to-day. 
The Jews had obtained exemption, the authorities having grasped 
the fact that to them it was a religious act absolutely irreconcil- 
able with the Jewish faith, while that faith could be held without 
disloyalty to the empire. But readiness to offer sacrifices to the 
deities officially recognised by the state was an easy test of 
loyalty ; when Christians were charged with disloyalty the test 
was applied, and when the Christians rejected it, a conviction 
was soon established that Christianity implied disloyalty. Gov- 
ernors who realised that the Christian attitude was precisely the 
same as that of the Jews, and that the Christians were not a 
danger to the state, resisted the pressure which was brought 
upon them to act with severity ; but there were periodical panics 
when the government became possessed with the idea that the 
Christians were a secret society of anarchists, and when this 
happened severe persecutions were let loose. It is melancholy 
to report that the first persecution set on foot by direct authority 
of the emperor took place under Marcus Aurelius himself, whose 
writings are treasured by Christians to this day. 

In spite of the constant social persecution and the occasional 
persecution by the state, the followers of the Christian faith 
Continued increased and multiplied steadily. There was a 
Progress of leaven of Christian morality in the midst of the 
Christianity. g enera i corruption. Owing to a misconception 
Christianity was beginning to be feared as a political force ; but 
more than a century was still to elapse before it actually became 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 117 

one, on lines entirely different from anything that had been 
anticipated. 

Marcus Aurelius was succeeded by his son Commodus, one 
of the worst emperors in the whole series, a painful contrast to 
his great father. After a few years of debauchery 3 The 
and tyranny he was murdered ; and there was a Later 
scramble for the throne among the leaders of the Em P ire - 
legions, just as there had been on the fall of Nero. Success fell 
to Septimius Severus, a soldier who claimed to be of Carthaginian 
descent. Severus was carried into office by the legions of 
Pannonia, the frontier province lying between Italy and the 
Danube, where the troops were now composed to an immense 
extent of barbarians, in other words tribes mainly Teutonic. 
This was owing to a step which Marcus Aurelius E n H. s t men t 
had found himself compelled to take. It had been of 
necessary hastily to enrol a large number of recruits. Barbanans - 
Theoretically, the legions could only be recruited from Roman 
citizens; consequently, the bestowal of citizenship had accom- 
panied enlistment. Hence, it was habitually the case from this 
time that the hardiest legions with the most experience in war 
and the most effective power of deciding succession to the 
empire were in fact largely made up of barbarians. 

Severus proved a vigorous emperor, but his energies were 
chiefly devoted to warfare on the frontiers. Like Hadrian he 
visited both the east and the west, and died at York. His son 
and successor Caracalla was notable for his vices and his cruel- 
ties, and also for having at one stroke bestowed Roman 
citizenship on all the provincials. 

One emperor after another succeeded by the favour of the 

legions. In a.d. 249 their choice was Decius, in whom we find 

once more a member of a family which had been 

. Decius, 249. 
famous in the days of the Roman republic. His 

reign was brief, and was notable for a severe persecution of the 
Christians. Throughout this third century of the Christian era 
the barbarians were bursting in over the frontiers. The appear- 
ance begins of the Franks of whom we shall hear The Bar- 
more later ; of the Allemanni, who supplied one of barians. 
the general names applied to the German tribes ; and of the Goths, 



u8 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

who appear to have been closely akin to the Danes and Norse- 
men of a later period. But it was not only the Teutonic hordes 
that were surging against the barriers of the empire ; in the far 
east the Persians, long subject to the Parthians, had succeeded 
in flinging off the yoke and setting up a new empire under the 
dynasty called the Sassanidae. The empire had need to choose 
soldiers for its emperors. 

Decius was the first who actually fell in the field. Valerian 
was made captive and slain by the Persian monarch. Another 
Emperor Claudius inflicted a great rout on the Goths. He was 
succeeded by another stout soldier, Aurelian, by birth an Illyrian 
peasant. He also checked the Goths, and after a brief interval 
was succeeded by another soldier, Probus, also an Illyrian, who 
fought successfully against Goths and Persians. And then 
among the many dim names belonging to this period, in which a 
reign of more than two or three years was an exception, emerges 
that of Diocletian, a Dalmatian soldier who had risen from the 
Diocletian, ranks by sheer force of character and ability. The 
A.D. 284. time had come when a great change in the Imperial 

system had become necessary ; it was the work of Diocletian to 
reorganise the empire. 

Three centuries had passed since the first establishment of 
the Roman Empire by Augustus on the foundations laid by Julius 
Survey from Caesar, twenty-seven years before the Christian era 
Augustus to began. The period can be conveniently divided 
ioc e lan. -^ tnree sec ti ns of almost equal length, 
each of which has certain special characteristics. The Julian 
emperors ruled from B.C. 27 to a.d. 69. The Imperial system 
was established in the first half of this time by the ability of 
Augustus and Tiberius so firmly that it survived the follies, vices 
and crimes of the emperors during the second half, including 
therein the last years of Tiberius. From 70 a.d. to 180, the 
whole series, with the one exception of Domitian, were rulers to 
whom the Roman world owed a debt of gratitude ; they rank 
among the ablest princes in history. Probably the administra- 
tion throughout the empire was consistently better than at any 
other time. The third period dates from the accession of Corn- 
modus in 180 a. p. to the accession of Diocletian in 284. 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 119 

During the whole of this time there was only one emperor who 
ruled for more than thirteen years, and only two others who ruled 
so long. The average reign was under five years. The rulers of 
this series with the exception of Commodus are known as the 
praetorian emperors, because all were raised to the purple by 
the legions. Throughout this period the barbarians were be- 
coming more and more actively aggressive, and the emperors 
were more and more engaged personally on frontier warfare in- 
stead of in controlling the administration of the empire. Rome 
itself practically ceased to have any importance except of a 
purely sentimental character, and the Roman citizenship was 
extended to all the races dwelling within the empire's 
boundaries. 

The high morality and the austere religion which all tradition 
ascribes to the Ancient Romans who raised their city to be the 
first in Italy had long vanished ; nothing had taken Religion 
its place except the somewhat dreary austerity of and Morals, 
the Stoic philosophers, which appealed to a few cultivated minds. 
But below the surface, and mainly among the humbler ranks of 
society, the leaven of Christianity was spreading, strengthening 
and stiffening the moral fibre of large classes of the community 
in proportion to the courage demanded of all adherents to the 
faith. The next period was to witness a reaction. After one 
more shock of persecution, the fiercest which had ever befallen 
it, the Christian religion was to become suddenly dominant and 
fashionable ; not a faith held with a passionate conviction which 
craved rather than shunned the crown of martyrdom, but a creed 
which was professed as a matter of course ; of which the re- 
generative force was destroyed when it was accepted as a 
convention instead of a vital inspiration. 

Diocletian must have been endowed with an exceptionally 
powerful personality. After the first contest for supremacy with 
a son of his predecessor who died by the hand of an assassin, 
no rival attempted to challenge the authority of the 
new emperor. More than this, he could venture 
to associate with himself a colleague of equal authority, and 
subsequently two more colleagues whose powers were scarcely 
less, and yet while doing so he could retain a complete moral 



i2o THE ROMAN DOMINION 

ascendency over the others. Later still he could even resign the 
Imperial authority altogether with a certainty that he could re- 
sume it to the universal satisfaction if he should see fit to do so. 
Diocletian in fact saw that an empire having so vast a line of 
Partition frontier open to attack by vast and ever-increasing 

of the Empire, masses of foes could not possibly be administered 
effectively by one man. He parted the empire into four great 
divisions : the eastern, which included Rome and Asia and 
Egypt, with the Thracian portion of the eastern European 
peninsula; two central divisions, which included the rest of 
Greece, Illyria, Italy, and North Africa ; and a western division, 
which comprised Britain, Gaul, and Spain. The eastern 
division he took into his own charge, while retaining only a very 
general supremacy over the colleagues to whom the other three 
divisions were entrusted. 

Diocletian and his senior colleague bore the title of Augustus, 
while the two juniors were called Caesars. Each had his own 
capital ; all the four men were Illyrians. The western Caesar 
was Constantius, whose son Constantine ultimately became sole 
emperor. The four emperors were all capable rulers and able 
soldiers, and for the time the new machinery worked effectively. 
After nearly twenty years, all with the exception of Constantius, 
joined in a fierce persecution of the Christians. In this, how- 
ever, Constantius himself refused to participate. Helena, the 
Rise of mother of his son Constantine, was actually a Chris- 

Constantine. t j an> At the end of twenty years the two Augusti 
resigned. Constantius died, and was succeeded by Constantine 
as western Caesar. Before long, however, acute rivalries arose 
4. The Chris- amon g various claimants to the titles of Augustus 
tian Empire, and Caesar. This led to a war between Constantine 
312 a.d. an( ^ Qne Q £ ^ claimants Maxentius, which was 

terminated by the decisive battle of the Milvian Bridge in the 
neighbourhood of Rome. According to his own statement 
Constantine himself had seen in the heavens a flaming cross 
bearing the legend, ' Under this standard thou shalt conquer.' 
It is doubtful whether it can be properly said that Constantine 
became Christian. But a year after the victory which had made 
him acknowledged master of the western half of the empire, he 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 121 

issued an edict which not only sanctioned the practice of the 
Christian religion, but promised it Imperial protection. The 
east passed for a time to Licinius. It was Con- Christianity 
stantine's intention to reconcile Christianity and in favour. 
Paganism ; but now that Christianity met with official favour 
and encouragement, he found it difficult enough to produce 
harmony among the Christians themselves. But before long 
Licinius declared against Christianity. A sharp struggle arose, 
in which Constantine appeared decisively as the champion of 
Christianity; Licinius was crushed, and in a.d. 323 Constantine 
became sole emperor. 

From this time Christianity must be regarded as the established 
religion of an empire in which Paganism was tolerated. From 
this time also the emperor himself becomes more constanti- 
like an oriental despot and less like a Roman nople. 
emperor. Moreover, a new oriental Rome took the place of 
the old Italian Rome as the Imperial headquarters. Rome in- 
deed had long ceased to occupy that position definitely, but no 
other city had taken its place. Diocletian had generally treated 
as his own capital Nicomedia on the Sea of Marmora; Con- 
stantine made the old Greek colony of Byzantium into his new 
Rome which he called Constantinople, the city of Constantine. 
Rome herself was to acquire a new significance as the seat of the 
pontiff, who claimed to be the supreme spiritual head of all 
Christendom. But Constantinople was from henceforth the 
political capital of the empire. The western regions were 
provinces over which it exercised less and less control. 

Although on the death of Constantine the empire was for a 
short time divided among his three sons, it was reunited under 
one of them, Constantius, and it continued to recog- west and 
nise one emperor until the death of Theodosius East * 
in a.d. 395. Through the greater part of the next century 
there was one emperor of the east and another of the west. 
Then the western emperors disappeared, but the real dominion 
had passed to the conquering barbarians. A little more than 
four centuries after the death of Theodosius another emperor was 
to be crowned at Rome as the successor of the Caesars, but he 
was already the lord of the nations which had grown up in the 



122 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

west wholly outside the control of the successors of Caesar in 
the east. 

Christianity had conquered, but Christendom was divided 
between adherents of the orthodox faith and the followers of 

. . the Arian heresy, which denied the complete divinity 

of Christ. This division played a part of some 

importance in the wars of these centuries, when the barbarian 

races claimed that they were fighting under the Arian or under 

the Orthodox banner. 

During the whole of the fourth century the empire succeeded 
in holding back the flood of the barbaric invaders in the far 
east and in the Greek and Italian peninsulas. 

But as the political centre of the empire had moved to the 
east its power of self-defence on the west diminished. Teu- 
tonic tribes broke into Gaul and swept through it into Spain. 
Vandals, The most famous of these groups were the Vandals, 

Goths, and w h were near kinsmen of the Goths. The Goths 
Huns. 

who were now settled along the line of the Danube 

were themselves being attacked in the rear by an entirely differ- 
ent race, the Huns, who belonged to the same group as Tartars, 
Turks, and Mongols. About the end of the fourth century, 
Alaric the Goth resolved to carve a dominion for himself out of 
the Roman Empire. For some time he met his match in the 
great general of the Imperial armies Stilicho in Italy. Stilicho 
himself was a Vandal, and the Roman legions now were for 
the most part composed not of Romans at all but of barbarian 
mercenaries. But the two sons of Theodosius, Honorius and 
Arcadius, were now emperors of west and east respectively • 
Honorius was persuaded to believe that Stilicho was a traitor. 
Alaric, The great soldier was executed, and Alaric fell upon 

410 A.D. Rome almost unopposed. For the first time since 

the ancient Gallic invasion, the Eternal City was sacked by a 
foreign foe in 410 a.d. It is curious to observe, however, that 
there was still a glamour about the Roman Empire which exer- 
cised an extraordinary influence over the barbarians. Alaric 
demanded not to set up an empire of his own, but to rule with 
the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Roman armies. He 
himself died very shortly after the sack of Rome, and his sue- 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 123 

cessor Athaulf led the Goths out of Italy again into Gaul and 
thence westwards, where they established a great dominion 
over the south-west of France and the greater part of Spain. 

The Vandals in Spain were driven before them and evacuated 
the country, satisfying themselves by taking possession of the 
province of Africa. Another Teutonic group, the Teutonic 
Franks, established themselves over most of the rest Movements, 
of Gaul ; and another group, the Burgundians, settled in the south- 
eastern part of Gaul. Towards the middle of the fifth century, 

the Huns, under their terrible chief Attila, threatened 

. . ^ Attila, 450. 

to carry their devastating arms all over Europe. 

Attila however received a severe check at what is called the battle 
of Chalons, at the hands of the combined forces of the West 
Goths or Visi-Goths, the Franks, and the Imperial armies com- 
manded by Aetius. Attila died soon afterwards ; the armies of 
the Huns were broken up and rolled back, and we hear no more 
of them. 

All this time Italy was in a state of chaos under the nominal 
rule of a series of incompetent emperors, while the real power 
lay in the hands of the Teutonic masters of the legions. At last 
the western emperors disappeared altogether, when the young 
Romulus Augustulus was deposed by Odoacer, 
called the Herulian, who got himself formally 
acknowledged as the official ruler of Italy under the Emperor Zeno 
at Constantinople, with the title of ' Patrician ' in 479 a.d. 

Seventy years earlier Britain had passed out of the Roman 
dominion. The Roman troops and the Roman government 
had been withdrawn, owing to the hopeless impossibility of 
maintaining control in remote regions ; and about the middle of 
the fifth century had begun the conquest of Britain by still 
another Teutonic group, the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 

Book hi., 200 b.c. to 476 a.d. 
guiding dates 





B.C. 




A.D. 


Battle of Cynoscephalae 


• 197 


Conquest of Britain 


41 


Battle of Magnesia . 


190 


Nero . . 


54 


Battle of Pydna . 


168 


Flavian Emperors 


70-96 


Carthage destroyed 


146 


Trajan .... 


98 


Tiberius Gracchus 


133 


Hadrian 


117 


Gaius Gracchus . . i 


23-121 


The Antonines . . I 


3 8 - J 93 


Defeat of Cimbri and 




Praetorian Emperors . i 


93-284 


Teutones . 


102 


Aurelian 


270 


Social War 


91-89 


Diocletian . 


284 


Sullan Constitution 


81 


Battle of Milvian Bridge 


312 


First Triumvirate 


. 60 


Constantine sole Emperor 


3^3 


Caesar crosses the Rubicor 


49 


Council of Nicaea 


3^5 


Caesar assassinated . 


44 


Julian the Apostate 


360 


Battle of Actium . 


3i 


Partition of Empire . 


395 


Augustus Emperor 


27 


Alaric . . 


410 




A.D. 


Attila . . . 


450 


Arminius defeats Romans 


9 


End of Western Empire 


476 


Tiberius 


n-37 







LEADING NAMES 

Philip— Flamininus— Antiochus— Aemilius Paullus— Scipio Africanus 
Minor — Tiberius Gracchus — Gaius Gracchus— Jugurtha — Marius — 
Mithridates — Sulla — Pompey— Crassus — Catiline — Julius Caesar — 
Antonius — Octavian — Agrippa— Tiberius - Caligula— Claudius — Nero 
—Vespasian— Trajan— Hadrian— Marcus Aurelius— Septimius Severus 
— Decius — Aurelian — Probus — Diocletian — Constantine — Julian 
— Theodosius — Alaric — Aetius— Attila — Odoacer. 

124 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 125 



NOTES 

The Imperial Republic. Rome had made herself an Imperial city 
state in Italy and Sicily, and had overthrown her rival in the west, 
Carthage. Now she suddenly expanded into a conquering World 
Power. But the system of city government, even modified as it had 
been in Italy, was inadequate to the strain of extended empire which 
tended to convert successful commanders into masters instead 
of servants of the republic, while it had a corrupting effect on 
the governors of remote and wealthy provinces. A govern- 
ment founded on Militarism was necessary to the control of the 
extended empire over subject peoples, and Militarism required a 
supreme controller of the armies — that is, an absolute monarchy. 
Until this was brought about, the supreme government became 
more and more unstable. The creation of the new system was the 
work of Julius Caesar, though it was not given permanent shape till 
the end of the struggle between Anthony and Octavius. 

Peoples of Western Europe. Before the coming of the Celts, it is 
probable that most of the races inhabiting Spain, France, and our 
islands belonged to one Pre-Aryan group called the Iberian. When 
the Celts or Gauls came, they absorbed the Iberians without 
exterminating them in the British Isles and in France ; but in Spain 
the Iberian element predominated over the Celtic. The Punic wars 
caused Spain to be the first Latinised by Roman conquest. France 
or Gaul was conquered by Julius Caesar, and also became rapidly 
Latinised. Across the channel, the Romans a century later con- 
quered what we now call England (not Scotland or Ireland), but 
were satisfied with a military occupation ; the people were never 
thoroughly Latinised, and after the withdrawal of the legions at the 
beginning of the fifth century, the Latin veneer disappeared. The 
first incursion of the next great Aryan division, the Teutones or 
Germans, was checked by Marius ; and for four centuries these 
races were held back behind the Danube and the Rhine. Then the 
Vandals and Goths broke through the barrier and established them- 
selves in the south of France, in Spain, and in Italy. Here, however, 
the people were so thoroughly Latinised that they Latinised the 
invaders, and also the later Teutonic groups of Franks, Burgundians, 
and Lombards : the Gallic or Iberian elements predominated among 
the people at large, and the popular languages became not German 
modified by Latin but Latin modified by German. 



126 THE ROMAN DOMINION 

Slavery. Through the entire period of ancient history — usually 
reckoned as ending with the disappearance of a Roman emperor 
from Italy — the whole structure of society rested on the basis of 
slavery. From Hammurabi to Justinian, slavery was a recognised 
institution in Babylon and Athens and Rome alike, as it was in 
Egypt. The more complicated and elaborate the order of society 
was, the more prominent was the slave element. An immense 
proportion of the population consisted of slaves ; that is, persons, 
male and female, who were as much the property of their owners 
as sheep and cattle. Captives in war whose lives were spared 
became in the first instance the slaves of their captors as a matter of 
course, and the children of slaves continued to be slaves. Slavery 
also might be the penalty of debt and sometimes of crime. Freedom 
was obtained either by the deliberate act of the owner in setting the 
slave free, or by purchasing freedom, as slaves were commonly 
allowed to acquire property. The bulk of the severest and meanest 
forms of labour was done by slaves ; and it was a constant grievance 
of the poorer classes of those who were free that slave labour 
excluded paid labour, and they themselves were in constant danger 
of being reduced to slavery by incurring debts which they could not 
pay. Christianity tended to diminish the rigours of slavery, which 
in the Middle Ages and in Christian regions was replaced by 
serfdom, as to which a further note will be found on page 169. 



BOOK IV 
THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 



CHAPTER IX 

THE EASTERN EMPIRE 
AND THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 

The separate western empire came to an end in 476 with the 
deposition of Romulus Augustulus, and the formal recognition 
by the Senate of Zeno as sole emperor in 479. 
A few years later Odoacer, patrician and king in 
Italy, was overthrown by Theoderic the Amaling, of the noblest 
family among the eastern Goths or Ostrogoths. Theoderic 
acted avowedly as a lieutenant of the empire. He Theoderic the 
reigned in Italy from 489 till 526. During this Ostrogoth, 
time, as we shall see presently, the power of the Franks in the 
west was rapidly increasing under their king, best known by the 
name of Clovis. The great question of the future appeared to 
be whether the Goths or the Franks, or possibly the Langobards, 
were to be the dominant Teutonic race of the future. In Italy 
Theoderic made a great effort after unification, ruling with a 
wide justice and toleration, although his last years were stained 
by sundry acts of cruelty. He was a statesman, a diplomatist, 
and a soldier; he had a thorough appreciation of what was good 
in the Greco-Roman civilisation. Could he have left a successor 
of equal ability, a great Gothic Empire might have been estab- 
lished ; but the Imperial court of Constantinople or Byzantium 
regarded the powerful Ostrogoths with alarm, and encouraged 
the Franks as their rivals. 

About the time of the death of Theoderic, the Imperial sceptre 
passed to the great Emperor Justinian. He is generally regarded, 
in accordance with tradition, as having been of Slavonic origin ; 
the emperors now habitually sprang from stocks which were 

1 129 



i 3 o THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

neither Greek nor Roman. The organisation of the Gothic 
kingdom in Italy was falling to pieces. It was the ambition of 
Justinian to restore the ancient empire with its old 
boundaries. His armies were led by the great 
General Belisarius. The first step towards the recovery of 
empire was the overthrow in Africa of the Vandal kingdom, 
which was now completely and deservedly wiped out ; it had 
been little more than a nest of brigands and pirates. The next 
step was to break the supremacy of the Goths in Italy. This 
was accomplished by the arms of Belisarius, who was then 
called away to repel the attacks of Mongol hordes who were 
thrusting themselves across the lower Danube and even 
threatening the Imperial capital. The Goths renewed the 
struggle under the chief name Totila, but Belisarius was 
Gothic Power succeeded by a general only less brilliant than 
broken. himself, the Armenian Narses, who crushed 

Totila and remained to rule Italy under the title of Exarch of 
Ravenna, which became the seat of government. But this was 
the last great effort of the Byzantine Empire in Italy. Justinian 
and Belisarius both died in 565; the new Emperor Justin 
removed Narses, and Italy was immediately overrun by a 
The fresh swarm of Teutonic invaders, this time the 

Lombards. Langobards or Lombards led by Alboin. An 
Exarch remained at Ravenna, but thenceforth the Imperial 
control in Italy was never more than nominal. 

It must not be forgotten that what is called the Eastern, 
Greek, or Byzantine Empire, with its headquarters at Con- 
stantinople, was the actual legitimate continuation of the 
Roman Empire which had sprung up from the Latin city- 
2. The Eastern state. The centre had been definitely shifted 
Empire. eastwards in the time of Diocletian and Con- 

stantine, and it had assumed a correspondingly oriental 
character. That is to say it was a blend of eastern and 
western; but the western element in it was Greek, not 
Roman. Its effective dominion still extended over Asia Minor, 
Syria and Egypt, as well as over the Balkan or Grecian penin- 
sula; and it was still nominally recognised as having a very 
shadowy authority even in the west. But the empire had 



THE EASTERN EMPIRE 



131 



failed altogether to hold back the Teutonic flood ; it still had 
to stand as the bulwark of Europe against Slavonic and 
Mongolian barbarians on the Danube, and the aggressive 
Persian Empire on the Euphrates * an empire soon to be 
replaced by a still more dangerous Asiatic foe. 

But it was not only the bulwark of Europe, it was also the 
depository of the old European civilisation and culture ; the 
civilisation and culture corrupted by the oriental admixture, but 
not shattered, as it had been in the west, by new forces whose 
civilisation and culture were in a very elementary state. What 
should astonish is not that the empire fell, but that it endured 
for a thousand years after the west had been swept from its 
grasp by the Teutons. 

Justinian had made a great and even for the moment a 
successful effort to stem the barbarian tide in the west. But 
the success passed. In the long-run its chief Justinian 
effect was to destroy, for a good deal more than a 527-565. 
thousand years, the possibility of Italy being built up into a 
single united state ; she became instead, as we shall see, merely 
a collection of disunited fragments. But if the victories of 
Belisarius were barren, the name of Justinian remains famous 
for his great work in codifying the Roman law; that is, in 
putting into a permanent and authoritative shape the masses of 
laws. and of judicial interpretations of the law which had been 
accumulating for centuries. The code of Justinian became the 
basis of law over the greater part of Europe, England forming 
almost the only exception. 

In the later years of the century the Emperor Maurice 
successfully held in check the Persian advance. But Slavonic 
tribes gradually forced their way over the Danube and down 
the western half of the Balkan peninsula, penetrat- 
ing Greece, though they submitted to the Byzantine Mongols, 
supremacy. After them pressed Mongol hordes ; and Persians - 
the Avars, who had perhaps absorbed the Huns, but were 
driven off beyond the line of the Danube ; and the Bulgars, who 
gradually settled themselves in the Danube basin. When 
Maurice was murdered the Persians advanced on the east; 
they inundated Syria; they swept into Egypt; they captured 



1.^2 



THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 



the Holy Land and the sacred places therein. Again, they were 
swept back by the Emperor Heraclius, and the imminent danger 
that the empire would be swallowed up by them was averted. 
But the doom of the Persian dominion was sealed ; it was to 
be destroyed by another power than that of the Greek Empire. 

The peninsula of Arabia lay cut off by the deserts from the 
ordinary course of the world's history. We have seen how, in 
the past, it had been presumably the cradle of the 
Semitic races which ruled over Syria and Meso- 
potamia. Once again it was to be the source of a great Semitic 
invasion. At the close of the fifth century Arabia was the 

vassal of Persia. Its peoples seem at intervals in 
Arabicl 

the past to have risen here and there to a com- 
paratively high degree of civilisation, or at least of commercial 
prosperity. The glories of the Queen of Sheba, who visited 
the court of King Solomon, are proverbial ; and Arabians had 
probably colonised a part of South-eastern Africa in search of 
gold, but they had never permanently attained to any high degree 
of political organisation. Dynasties had ruled among them, 
sometimes Jewish and sometimes Abyssinian. Debased forms 
of Judaism and of Christianity were known to them, but for the 
most part their worship was of a primitive and idolatrous order. 
Their most revered object of veneration was a black stone 
called the Kaaba, enshrined in a temple at Mecca. Mecca, and 
Medina were the two principal cities. The bulk of the popula- 
tion were neither townsfolk nor agriculturists, but formed tribes 
living as nomads with their flocks and herds. 

Such was the people among whom arose the prophet whose 
name was to shake the world. Mohammed was a respectable 

person in the service of the wealthy widow Kadija, 

who took him completely into her favour, and 
she married him. When he was forty years old he saw in 
a vision the angel Gabriel, who instructed him as to the 
prophetic duties which he had been chosen to accomplish. 
He was to convert the Arabs to faith in one God, and the 
shrine of the mystic Kaaba into his shrine. The prophet's 
doctrine was a conglomeration of Judaism, Christianity, Fatalism, 
and a materialistic conception of a future life attractive enough 



THE EASTERN EMPIRE 133 

to unspiritual minds. The Judaic and Christian elements were 
both very much garbled. No doubt he believed in the reality 
of his mission, and what he taught was something very much 
higher than the gross superstitions which flourished around 
him. No doubt he also lost the power of distinguishing 
between the imaginations which beset him without any 
conscious activity on his part, and his own deliberate invention. 
At any rate by slow degrees he began to persuade other people 
to accept him at his own valuation. When he began publicly 
to assume the character of a prophet, he found Mohammed's 
himself unpopular in Mecca, a town whose com- flight from 
mercial prosperity depended very largely on its Mecca > 622 - 
prestige as the guardian of the Kaaba. In Medina, however, 
his doctrines found a readier acceptance, and thither he migrated 
in the year 622 a.d., known as the year of the Hejira, that is, 
the flight. The Mohammedan era dates from the year 622 of 
the Christian era. 

There was a keen rivalry between Medina and Mecca, and 
Medina began zealously to support the prophet who had found 
no honour in his own city. Hostility began chiefly in the form 
of raids on the caravan routes leading to Mecca. Outside of 
Mecca the prophet's influence gradually increased, and in 
630 a.d. he was able suddenly to appear before the Sacred 
City with an irresistible force. The townspeople submitted, and 
were at once admitted to favour. The idols were Triumph of 
destroyed, but the shrine of the Kaaba was islam, 630. 
preserved as the Temple of the Most High, and the Kaaba 
itself as His Symbol. Instead of being the Sacred City of 
pagan superstition, Mecca became the Holy City of the new 
faith. Islam defeated the false gods ; and the Moslems, as 
the followers of Mohammed are called, were about to start on a 
new and terrific career of conquest. Thenceforth also the faithful 
made pilgrimages to Mecca as the infidels had done before. 

Two years later Mohammed died. He left no children 

except his daughter Fatima, concerning whose husband Ali 

the prophet, in his last days, had used an ex- 

• u- u r i_- r 11 j j 4. The Kaliphs. 

pression which some of his followers regarded as 

an order that Ali should succeed him ; out of which there 



i 3 4 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

subsequently arose a great disruption in the Moslem world, 
which split into the two sects of the Fatimites or Shiites and 
Mohammed tne Sunnites. At the time the prophet's nomina- 
succeeded by tion, if such it was, was discarded. The suc- 
bu Bekr. cessor or kaliph chosen was Abu Bekr, one 
of Mohammed's earliest converts and most loyal followers. 

After the capture of Mecca, Arabia in general had declared 
its adherence to the new prophet. Several new prophets, 
however, now arose ; and to crush these was the first business 
of the kaliph and his captain Khaled. This done, the great 
project was taken up of propagating the faith by the sword. 
The Moslem principle was simple. It offered three alternatives : 
conversion, tribute, or battle. Abu Bekr himself 
lived only two years longer, but he had already 
secured the succession to Omar, who may perhaps be called the 
real hero of Islam. 

While Mohammed was establishing himself in Arabia, the 
Emperor Heraclius had been hurling back the advance of the 
Persians. It was against Persia that Omar directed his first 
energies. After a fierce contest the Persian Yesdigerd was 
driven from the throne, and the Saracen or Arabian dominion 
Advance of was carried far beyond the Tigris. Heraclius 
islam. could not repeat the great effort which had routed 

the Persians, and Syria was absorbed piecemeal. Egypt was 
no better able than Syria to resist the conquerors. At the 
close of 641 it was in effect conquered when the great city of 
Alexandria fell, to be replaced as the capital of Egypt by a 
new city which we know as Cairo. 

These astonishing successes were mainly due to the great 
organising abilities of Omar, who left the fighting to his 
subordinates, while he built up the structure of the new empire. 
But when Omar died dissensions arose. The arms of the 
Saracens met with continued success as they advanced in 
Africa, thrust into Asia Minor, and established a fleet in the 
Mediterranean. Nevertheless, the new kaliph, an old man, 
made himself extremely unpopular with the rigid group of 
Mohammed's original followers by putting forward a revision of 
the Koran, the sacred book of the Mohammedan doctrine. 



THE EASTERN EMPIRE 135 

Othman was killed by the adherents of Ali, the prophet's 
son-in-law, who was proclaimed kaliph. His title was im- 
mediately disputed, and he himself was overthrown. The 
There was a struggle for some years between Ommayads. 
Husain, the son of AH, and the Ommayad family for the 
kaliphate, which ended in the victory of the Ommayads. The 
threatened disruption, however, was by no means at an end. 

The struggle over the succession did not prevent the 
Saracens from carrying their arms still further to the east, and 
westward, along the African coast, till they penetrated into 
Spain on one side and India on the other, although the time 
had not yet come for the establishment of Islam in these 
regions. In the direction of Eastern Europe, however, their 
conquering career met with a tremendous check in the year 718. 

About the middle of the eighth century the rule of the 
Ommayads in Asia was challenged by a new family, the 
Abbasides, who were completely victorious and The 
established the brief magnificence of the new Abbasides. 
capital of the kaliphate at Bagdad on the Tigris. In 786 a.d. 
began the reign of that famous monarch Harun-al-Raschid. 
Nevertheless, the victory of the Abbasides in the east was 
promptly followed by the establishment of an opposition 
kaliphate in the far west by a member of the Ommayad 
family, Abdur Rahman. 

The successors of the Emperor Heraclius, who died in 
641 a.d., the year after the conquest of Egypt by the Saracens, 
present no great names. They saw the Saracens win Africa 
from their nominal sway, attack Sicily, which was still regarded 
as part of their dominion, and even assail Constantinople. 
But that feeble family became extinct ; and in the 5 The 
year 717 the great Emperor Leo in., called the isaurian 
Isaurian by reason of his race, and the Iconoclast Em P erors - 
because of his religious policy, succeeded to the Byzantine 
throne. It was at this moment that the Ommayads were 
putting forth their greatest effort against the Islam repu ised 
empire. They had overrun Asia Minor, and now by Leo the 
they laid siege to Constantinople. A very few Isaurian > 717 - 
years before they had burst into Spain, of which they were 



136 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

already masters. It seemed now that both from the west and 

from the east the Cross was to be driven back before the 

Crescent. But the decisive victory of Leo rolled back the 

Saracens, as a few years later their attempt to pass the Pyrenees 

was defeated by the Franks under the command of Charles 

Mart el. 

The Byzantine Empire was already greatly reduced in extent. 

The Saracens had bereft it of Africa, of Egypt, of Syria, and 

had left it in possession only of Asia Minor. In 
Asia Minor. . ....... ,.•; .. r 

fact, its Asiatic dominion did not extend very far 

beyond the old Lydian dominion at the time of its overthrow 
by Cyrus. This was the one portion of Western Asia which 
does not appear ever to have been definitely dominated by the 
Semites ; and which, since the first coming of the Aryans, had 
always been subject to western influences. The mountain 
ranges which had protected it in the past from Nineveh and 
from Babylon still guarded it from the Saracens. Still, as 
always before, it was the one region where east and west did 
meet, so that it would be difficult to say that either definitely 
dominated over the other. 

The Isaurian dynasty provided a series of vigorous rulers, 
who, besides rolling back the Saracen tide, made an energetic 
Church and effort i n the direction of ecclesiastical reform. The 
Empire in eastern emperors habitually attempted, not without 
the East. success, to assert their supremacy over the Church 

as well as over the state. In the west we shall presently see a 
great struggle in progress between the spiritual and the temporal 
powers. In the east no spiritual power had successfully claimed 
an authority higher than that of the emperor. In the east and 
in the west alike, the clergy had always derived a degree of 
power and influence by encouraging practices which were often 
highly beneficial, as what may be called stepping-stones, by 
which the uneducated classes could be led from their traditional 
paganism to the higher conceptions of Christianity. But some- 
times the stepping-stones failed to serve their purpose, and were 
Image- used to drag down the Christian conceptions to 

worship. the pagan level. Images and relics, viewed as 

symbols of things spiritual, helped to touch the imagination, to 



THE EASTERN EMPIRE 137 

awaken awe and reverence for the Divine. But when the awe 
and reverence were appropriated to the images and relics 
themselves ; when these were invested with sanctity, credited 
with miraculous powers, and themselves received adoration, a 
form of idolatry was in effect practised. On the other hand, 
it was easy enough to see how the most honest and spiritual- 
minded men, themselves heeding the spiritual significance of 
these things, should have felt that reverence for them and 
reverence for the Divine were bound up together ; and to see 
also how the less honest of the clergy felt that their own power 
and influence depended on maintaining what they themselves 
regarded as superstitions, but the vulgar regarded as mysteries 
of which the clergy were custodians. Leo and his successors 
set their faces against this image-worship, and hence The 
received the title of the ' Iconoclasts ' or image- Iconoclast 
breakers. For a time they were successful, that Em P erors - 
is to say, they were to some extent able to enforce their views 
in spite of the opposition of the clergy. But by doing so they 
intensified the antagonism between the Imperial authority and 
the Christian Church of the west. Then at the close of the 
eighth century came a time when there was a struggle for the 
Imperial authority ; and Irene, the widow of the Emperor 
Leo iv., for a time secured the Imperial Crown for herself, 
and endeavoured to compensate for the crimes by which she 
achieved her ambitions by seeking the support of the clergy. 
The result was to increase the power and influence End of the 
of the ecclesiastical organisation, and the restora- Isaurian 
tion of image- worship. So ended the iconoclastic Dynastv ' 802< 
struggle which foreshadowed one of the most prominent 
features in the Protestant reformation. 




Emery Walker sc. 



CHAPTER X 

THE WEST : FROM CLOVIS TO CHARLEMAGNE 

When the Roman Empire was established under Augustus, we 
saw that it already extended over Europe, south of the Danube, 
and west of the Rhine, and that it never effec- i. Teutons 
tively or for long occupied territory beyond these in the West, 
boundaries. Within these limits, west of a line drawn from the 
headwaters of the Rhine to the head of the Adriatic Sea, the 

population consisted almost entirely of three . „ 

••11 t -r, a i • i Latin Europe, 

original elements : the Pre- Aryan, which was pre- 
dominant in Spain, was fairly extensive in Gaul, and was 
represented in Italy mainly by the Etruscans; the Celts, who 
were in some force in Spain, predominant in Gaul and in the 
northern plains of Italy ; and the Italian, predominant in Italy 
and leavening both Spain and Gaul. But the Italians were the 
ruling race, and the whole became completely Latinised; that 
is, it acquired a Latin character and the Latin language prevailed 
in it. 

During the latter part of the fourth century and the fifth 
century a.d., the Teutonic tide swept over the whole region, 
and we shall see that in the sixth century Teutons Latins and 
were lords of the whole of it. Nevertheless, the Teutons, 
remarkable fact remained, that although the Teutons were never 
driven out or reconquered by earlier populations, it was the 
Latin language, Latin ideas, and the Latin character, which 
ultimately prevailed over the whole area. Outside that area 
the Teutons remained Teutonic however intimately they may 
have been connected with the Teutons who within that area 
became Latinised. Here within the Roman Empire the invad- 

139 



i 4 o THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

ing Teutons neither exterminated nor drove out the earlier 
Latinised population ; they settled down among them as 
masters, but coalesced with them, and were absorbed by them 
instead of absorbing them. Beyond the Rhine and the Danube, 
where the migrating Teutons had met with no organised civilisa- 
tion, they exterminated, swallowed up, or drove out before them, 
all the peoples they met, and they remained Teutonic with very 
slight modification. 

We may see that the rule applies also to Britain, which was 
not taken into the Roman Empire until the reign of Claudius. 

„ ,, Britain was a Roman outpost, but it never acquired 

Britain. r r T . . _. J 1 

more than a veneer of Latinity. The Roman 

legions had been withdrawn from it for half a century before 
the Teutonic invasion began in earnest ; hence the Celtic 
inhabitants were either exterminated by the invaders, or 
absorbed into their slave population, or driven into the fast- 
nesses of the north and west. In Britain, as in the lands east 
of the Rhine, the Teutons remained Teutonic and were never 
Latinised. 

Before the break up of the Roman Empire, the fierce tribes 
of the Vandals had swept through Gaul into Spain. In the 
Vandals fifth century they were followed by the stronger 

in Africa. tribes of the Visigoths, who withdrew from Italy to 
found a dominion in the west. Before them the Vandals retired 
into Africa, where they ruled and tyrannised for a hundred years, 
till they were wiped out by Belisarius. So ended the brief 
Teutonic supremacy in Africa, giving place to a restoration of 
the Byzantine supremacy. During the seventh century that 
supremacy was wrested from the eastern empire by the advance 
of the Saracens, who extended their conquests to the Atlantic. 

In the meanwhile the Visigoths had conquered the south of 
France and the whole of Spain, where the Vandals left their 
The Goths trace only in the name of the great province of 
in Spain. Andalusia. The Gothic conquest of Spain was 

not on the whole destructive. They were the least bloodthirsty 
of the Teutonic tribes, and comparatively speaking at least their 
treatment of conquered races was generous. But they did not 
develop a high political organisation. 



THE WEST: FROM CLOVIS TO CHARLEMAGNE 141 

In fact the inclination of the Teutons was to accept a war 
leader, but to pay very small respect to the authority of a king 
in time of peace. Their tribes consisted of freemen and 
nobles. The king was not much more than the principal 
noble; and the noble who wished his own rights to be 
respected, respected the rights of the freemen who were 
attached to his person. On the other hand the nobles were 
not too scrupulous in their dealings with each other, while 
they were ready to resent any claim to superiority on the part 
of a neighbour. The result was that in Spain every powerful 
noble became a petty prince on his own account, and no 
national organisation was achieved. There was neither a strong 
monarchy, nor, as at Rome, a solid oligarchical body working 
together for the common welfare subject to the interests of 
the ruling order. The nobles maintained established law 
and custom each in his own territory, but they made war 
on each other as the fancy took them. In Spain they had 
no common enemy to resist, and the disintegration steadily 
increased. 

But by the beginning of the eighth century the Saracens on 
the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar were establishing their 
dominion. They turned greedy eyes towards 2 . The Sara- 
Spain ; in 710 a.d. they landed a great host on cens. 
the Spanish shores. The Gothic army had gathered to meet 
them, but no longer had the character of the mighty warriors 
who had followed Alaric to Rome. At Guadalete for seven whole 
days a desperate battle raged ; it ended in the total overthrow 
of the Goths. The Saracen flood swept over the whole Spanish 
peninsula, and the remnant of the Goths were penned up in 
the north-western corner and the mountains of the north. 
Thence in after time they issued again, and won back the 
land fragment by fragment as the centuries rolled by; until 
at last, in the days of our King Henry vn., the last Moorish 
kingdom in Spain, Granada, was overthrown, and the Crescent 
was driven out of Western Europe. It is to be remembered 
that in later days the highest nobility of Spain claimed 
descent from Gothic ancestors, not from Celts or Iberians 
or Latins. 



i 4 2 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

Meantime, however, the Saracens or Moors, as they came to 
be called, became lords of Spain ; and set up a civilisation of 
Tbe ]y[ 00rs their own, which was in many respects the most 
in Spain. advanced in Europe, although it flourished under 

the faith of Mohammed, not of Christ. The Moors, indeed, 
had hardly settled in Spain when they swept through the 
Pyrenees into France. There, however, they were checked, 
rolled back, and presently driven behind the river Ebro, which 
became the boundary of their domain. It was here, at Cordova, 
that the fugitive Ommayad Abdur Rahman set up the rival 
kaliphate when the Abbasides won the chieftainship of Islam 
in the east, in the middle of the eighth century. 

The Goths had overrun Italy under Alaric ; they had with- 
drawn again to the west under his successor. Attila the Hun 
3. The na d burst into Italy and retired. Then the 

Papacy. peninsula had been dominated by Teutonic 

captains of various races at the head of Imperial legions 
composed of an almost entirely Teutonic soldiery : Ricimer 
the Sueve or Swabian, Odoacer the Herulian, and greatest of 
all, Theoderic the Ostrogoth. Then for a time Belisarius and 
Narses had restored the effective supremacy of the eastern 
empire. But the restoration was brief; again a Teutonic 
The Lorn- horde poured in, the Langobards, under their 

hards in chief Alboin. The Langobards, or Lombards, 

Italy. were a i ater ano > m ore barbarous wave of the tide 

than either Visigoths or Ostrogoths or even Franks ; and their 
dominion in Italy suffered from the common defect of the 
Teutonic races. It failed to establish central government. A 
Lombard, like a Gothic king, received only a temporary allegi- 
ance from a nobility, every member of which considered himself 
entitled to set up for himself a separate principality. Italy 
became practically a collection of petty states, habitually behav- 
ing as if they were independent, and only combining for some 
immediate common advantage. The Lombards dominated 
Italy, but they never mastered it. The Greek Empire still had 
an Italian capital, Ravenna, and a considerable hold on Southern 
Italy and Sicily. Rome had the prestige of the city which in 



THE WEST: FROM CLOVIS TO CHARLEMAGNE 143 

old time had conquered the world, and the added prestige of 
being the abode of the acknowledged spiritual head of Western 
Christendom. 

The papacy was not yet a dominant political force. Even 
the supremacy of Rome had never been acknowledged in the 
Eastern Empire; but in the west, save in very The Holy- 
remote regions, the authority of the Latin Church See. 
was acknowledged and the dignity of its head was recognised 
with awe by the fiercest barbarians. The popes Innocent and 
Leo had faced Alaric and Attila when the secular powers had 
failed before them. The influence of Rome was increased 
when Clovis, the true founder of the Frankish dominion, 
declared himself in favour of orthodox Christianity instead of 
the Arianism professed by the Goths. In course of time the 
Goths also became orthodox. The popes were by no means 
always remarkable for the faith, the courage, or the ability 
which distinguished Innocent and Leo ; but at the close of the 
sixth century, when the Lombard ascendency in Italy was 
establishing itself, the papal throne was occupied by one of 
the most remarkable of the whole series of Gregory the 
popes. This was Gregory 1., deservedly called the Great, 590-604. 
Great, with whom we are all familiar as the pope who sent 
Augustine to convert the English for the sake of the children 
whom he had seen in a slave market and called ' Not Angles 
but Angels.' Gregory was not only an organiser of great 
ability; his fervent zeal and eager faith reached to the whole 
body of the clergy, and roused a powerful missionary spirit 
which proved the real vitality of the Christian religion. A 
second Gregory defied the iconoclastic emperor a hundred 
years later; and these two may perhaps be said to have 
established the peculiar character of the Roman Church, its 
tremendous claims to authority, and its reliance on monasticism. 
It was certainly Gregory 1. who secured that the Missionary 
Christianity of the Teutons should be Latin Zeal. 
Christianity which regarded the pope as its head. The 
Christians of Ireland who did not own the papal supremacy had 
already begun mission work among the English ; but Gregory's 
missionaries gained England for Latin, not Celtic Christianity; 



i 4 4 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

and hence it was to Latin Christianity that the English 
missionaries Boniface (whose natural name was Winfried) and 
Willibrord converted the heathen Germans beyond the Rhine. 

We shall not here at great length relate the manner of the 
conquest which changed Britain into England, another of the 
4 TheTeu- new Teutonic nations. But there are features of 
tonic Conquest the English conquest which must be brought into 
of England. comparison with the other Teutonic conquests. 
There was no movement of one solid mass under one leader, 
as with Goths or Franks; but a migration of kindred tribes 
under separate leaders, sometimes recognising a common war- 
lord. There was no establishment of a kingdom of England, 
but a gradual extension of the dominion of tribal chiefs until 
several kingdoms were set up, over which one king or another 
might claim a general supremacy by reason of his warlike 
powers; but among which, as among the Goths or Lombards, 
there was no real unity. It was not till the coming of a 
foreign foe, the Danes, in the ninth century, and their con- 
quest of half the island, that a leader arose who was able to 
develop the idea of a common nationality which transformed 
the House of Wessex into the Royal House of England. But 
The Teutonic ^ was * n England that the Teutonic state grew up 
State in in its most purely Teutonic form, unmodified by 

England. an y con t aC f- w \th an already deeply rooted civilisa- 

tion. To the English state, modifications came afterwards, 
with its conquest by a Latinised power, the Normans. It was 
the Teutonic state in an already advanced state of development 
which was thus modified ; whereas other Teutons were only in 
an early stage of political development when they were brought 
into direct contact with a Latin or Latinised civilisation. 

The Gothic and Lombard kingdoms perished, overthrown 
the one by the Saracens, the other after a long interval by 
the Franks; the English and Frankish dominions endured. 
When Theoderic was making himself master of Italy, Clovis 
and his Franks were making themselves masters of Gaul. 
5. The The names by which the Frankish monarchs are 

Franks. familiar to us are derived from French literature, 

and are apt to make us forget that the Franks were Germans. 



THE WEST: FROM CLOVIS TO CHARLEMAGNE 145 

Clovis should be called Chlodwig, the name which was after- 
wards modified into the German Ludwig and the French Louis. 
In the same way, we have adopted the name of Charlemagne, 
bestowed in the early French romances on the Emperor Karl 
or Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus ; and the families of the 
Merwings and Karlings have become the Merovingians and 
Carolingians. Towards the end of the fifth century the 
Visigoths were in possession in South-western Gaul and the 
Burgundians in the south-east. The Franks had spread over 
Northern Gaul, while they still held their territories on both 
banks of the Rhine. 

Clovis, the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, made friends 
with the papacy, and brought under his sway the Arian Goths 
and Burgundians. Perhaps it would be more The 
correct to say that the Goths migrated to join Merovingians, 
their brethren in Spain. Clovis was the only great man of his 
line. Nevertheless, for two and a half centuries the Franks 
continued to acknowledge the Merovingian kings. Sometimes 
the dominion was divided among brothers ; but as a general 
rule, when there were brothers, there was one who succeeded in 
getting rid of the rest. The records of the Merovingian kings 
are mainly a chronicle of particularly ugly crimes ; notably, 
those due to the rivalry of the two famous and wicked queens, 
Fredegonde and Brunhilde. But in the second century after 
Clovis, that is in between 600 and 700 a.d., the kings ceased 
to be persons of importance ; the rulership passed into the 
hands of a great noble with the title of Major Domus, Mayor 
of the Palace, who was the nominee sometimes of the nobles in 
general, sometimes of the king. 

We must remark that the main Frankish dominion fell into 
two divisions : the eastern comprising what may be called the 
Rhine provinces, known as Austrasia, and the Austrasia 
western known as Neustria, a name of obscure and Neustria. 
origin. The Neustrian Franks became Latinised ; the Aus- 
trasians remained almost entirely German, the more so because 
they were in constant contact with the entirely German tribes 
beyond the Rhine. There was a strong rivalry especially 
during the seventh century between Austrasia and Neustria 

K 



146 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

which became predominant in turn as a Neustrian or an 
Austrasian became Mayor of the Palace ; but towards the end 
of the century the supremacy passed definitely to the great 
Austrasian family of the Arnulfings, when Pepin 
of Heristal overthrew the Neustrians. The Arnul- 
fings set themselves to consolidate the Frankish nation under their 
own rule, although for sixty-five years they did not take posses- 
sion of the throne, but kept a puppet Merovingian king there. 

Pepin of Heristal ruled with vigour for nearly thirty years, 
when he was succeeded as Mayor of the Palace by the great 
Charles warrior Charles Martel, who in 732 smote the in- 

Martei. vading Saracens in what is generally called the 

Battle of Tours, or more correctly Poictiers. This was the 
decisive check on the advance of Mohammedanism in the west, 
as the repulse of the Saracens by Leo the Isaurian before Con- 
stantinople in 717 had flung back its advance in the east. 

Pepin had strengthened himself by alliance with the Church. 
Charles Martel, while he appropriated ecclesiastical wealth for 
political and military purposes, made alliance with the papacy 
itself which was in the heat of its contest with the iconoclast 
emperors of the east. The Lombards at this time were ruled 
by a monarch Liutprand, who was making strenuous efforts to 
consolidate the Lombard kingdom. Liutprand tried to play off 
emperor and pope against each other for his own advantage, so 
that a Frankish alliance became particularly attractive to the 
Pepin the pope. The son of Charles Martel, Pepin the 
short. Short, carried his father's policy further. In 752 he 

ma'de up his mind to abolish the farce of maintaining a puppet 
king who had neither dignity nor power, and took the curious 
step of appealing to the pope to sanction the assumption of the 
regal office by the man who exercised the regal functions. Pope 
Zacharias duly gave his sanction. Childeric, the last Mero- 
vingian king, retired into a monastery, and Pepin became king 
of the Franks ; while the papacy naturally considered that it had 
secured a title to the gratitude of his dynasty. The gratitude 
Papal Claims was duly displayed when Pepin marched into Italy 
created. a t t ne pope's request, defeated the Lombard king, 

compelled him to pay tribute, and handed over a group of pro- 



THE WEST: FROM CLOVIS TO CHARLEMAGNE 147 

vinces in Central Italy as a donation to the Church. The papacy 
thus for the first time acquired a domain of its own, which later 
it chose to attribute to the gift of Constantine the Great, basing 
that claim on a notorious forgery ; while a precedent had also 
been created which it subsequently urged as a proof that the 
pope has authority to depose and appoint secular princes. 

The power of the Franks culminated under Pepin's son and 
successor Karl or Charles, best known as Charlemagne. At 
Pepin's death Charles was associated on the throne with his 
brother Carloman; but three years later, in 771, 6 «. . 
Carloman died, and Charles became sole ruler, magne, 771- 
His predecessors for three generations had been 814, 
consolidating the Frankish kingdom. Charles extended it into 
the widest empire that has been seen in Western Europe except 
that of Napoleon. In the south-west he set the seal to his grand- 
father's work by forcing the Saracens once for all behind the line 
of the river Ebro. Almost throughout his reign he was waging 
wars and consolidating his dominions, extending his rule over 
Saxony and Bavaria, and humbling the Mongol kingdom of the 
Avars in Hungary. At the beginning of his reign he completed 
his father's conquest of the Lombards in Italy. The Lombard 
kingdom ceased to exist, and the northern half of Italy became 
a province of the dominion of the Frankish king. But the 
moment had come for making a change in the European system. 

Hitherto the west had professed to recognise a very shadowy 
supremacy attaching to the empire which had never ceased to 
call itself Roman. Real authority it had none beyond the 
Grecian peninsula, save in Southern Italy and The Empire 
Sicily ■ yet the kings of the conquering Teutons had Revived, 800. 
chosen to claim a legal authority for their position by representing 
themselves as having derived it from the emperor. But while 
Charles was palpably and obviously the Lord of Western Europe, 
Irene, the widow of the Emperor Leo iv., had put out her son's 
eyes and claimed herself to rule as empress at Byzantium. 
The pretext that a woman could not be emperor was seized. 
On Christmas day in the year 800 Pope Leo in. crowned 
Charles emperor and successor of the Caesars, and the Holy 
Roman Empire came into being. Thus was Europe decisively 



148 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

divided into east and west politically, and a few years later the 
churches of eastern and western Christendom were ,no less 
decisively parted. 

Charles was a great conqueror, who carried the eastern bound- 
aries of his empire to the river Elbe, and brought practically 
A German the whole of the German peoples under his sway, 
Empire. with the exception of the Scandinavian branch 

occupying Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and of England. 
Essentially, it was a German Empire that he had created ; an 
empire over Germans or over peoples dominated by Germans, 
of which only one portion had been Latinised. The bulk of the 
Latinised portion ultimately parted from the rest, and happened 
to retain as its own the name of the dominant German people ; 
whereas among the purely German peoples the name was retained 
only in the purely Frankish territory of Franconia. But the land 
which the Romans had called Gallia, Gaul, took its name of 
France from the Franks who had given it its rulers. 

The organisation which Charles applied to his empire became 
the basis of a new European system. The territorial magnates, 
Government generally entitled Dukes or Counts, were responsible 
of Charles. f or the government of their provinces or districts, 
who were replaced by bishops in territories held by the Church. 
All the magnates were politically the emperor's officers, and 
bound to render him military service. The emperor's authority 
was supreme, but Charles acted on the regular Teutonic principle 
of ruling formally at least by consent of his people. Twice a 
year he held a great assembly to which were gathered not only 
nobles and prelates but members of the commons, to whom his 
plans and his edicts were submitted, not for formal ratification, 
but so that the emperor might ascertain the general opinion 
with regard to them. 

It was the purpose of Charles to enforce law and order 
throughout his dominions, and among churchmen as well as 
Charles and among the laity. In his view the organisation of 
the Church. the Church was part of the organisation of the 
State. As emperor he regarded himself as the head of 
western Christendom and the superior of the pope, who 
had paid homage to him at the Imperial coronation. He 
assumed the entire right of control, without a suspicion of recog- 



THE WEST: FROM CLOVIS TO CHARLEMAGNE 149 

nising any authority which could override his own. He examined 
into the lives and characters of the bishops, and expected them 
to obey his orders. But he had no wish to encourage the system 
under which prelates for the most part hardly differed from lay- 
men ; he held that they should be emphatically not men of the 
world, but men of religion. In his conception of the empire he 
intended them to serve as a counterpoise to the great lay mag- 
nates ; as a power more closely associated with the Crown than the 
nobles, and more to be relied on to support authority. Charles 
But the bishops were not only to be an order of as Educator, 
nobility free from the temptation of the ordinary great noble to 
magnify his own family ; the Church was also under their guid- 
ance to discharge its great function of educating the people. 
Charles was not only keen in the pursuit for himself of such 
knowledge as was available ; he was zealous that learning should 
be fostered. He set up schools and universities, and gathered 
to them scholars whencesoever scholars might be drawn, the 
greatest among them being the Englishman Alcuin. 

Charles was emphatically one of those who stand out in 
history as heroic figures ; men who have been controlling forces, 
and have deliberately aimed at increasing the wel- His Great- 
fare of mankind. He was a great conqueror, but also ness - 
a greater organiser; he had a magnificent conception of duty 
himself, and he expected others to act up to his own standards. 
Those standards were imperfect ; in some respects they were no 
better than those generally prevalent. He waged war no more 
mercifully than other rulers and captains of his time ; and since 
he waged war on a great scale, he was also merciless on a great 
scale. His private morals were those of most men of his time 
outside the cloister and the mission field, but the personal 
greatness of the man is shown first by the consistency of a career 
extending over a reign of forty-seven years ; secondly, by the fact 
that no hand but his own was strong enough to hold together 
the empire which he had created ; and thirdly, by the permanent 
effects of his achievement, which survived the disruption of 
the empire itself. 

On January 27th, 814, the mighty emperor died in the seventy- 
first year of his age. He was buried at his favourite seat of 
Aachen or Aix-la-Chapelle. 



CHAPTER XI 

EAST AND WEST : FROM CHARLEMAGNE 
TO HILDEBRAND 

When Charlemagne died a new force was just beginning to 
make itself felt in Western Europe. A portion of the Teutonic 
stock had occupied Norway and Sweden and the 
shores of the Baltic, and had pushed its way into 
Denmark. Hitherto this Scandinavian group had not come 
into contact with the comparatively civilised nations of the 
The North- west. But by the close of Charlemagne's reign 
men - they were beginning to display a formidable 

activity. The first raiding bands of the Norsemen or Danes 
calling themselves Vikings, that is, the men of the creeks, 
sallied out from the fjords and inlets of the north, intent on 
plunder. As the ninth century advanced, the occasional pirate 
ships grew into pirate fleets, which carried their ravages along 
every coast, up every navigable river, till they found their way 
even into the Mediterranean. Presently they were not content 
merely to ravage and destroy, to carry off booty and slaves; they 
came in force, remained in armed occupation of the lands they 
seized, and wrung cessions of territory from the kings of the 
west. 

Half England, known as the Danelagh, fell under their sway, 
though they settled down and mixed with the English, and 
Their Con- generally acknowledged the sovereignty of the 
quests. English kings. In France they won from the 

Carolingian monarch the fair province of Normandy, the land 
of the Northmen. Whether they came from Denmark or 
Norway, the Northmen had a great aptitude, when once they 



FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO HILDEBRAND 151 

did settle down, for adapting themselves to their surroundings. 
In England they became English with a difference, a harder 
and more irrepressible type than the Saxons of the south and 
the west. In Normandy they became French with a difference, 
a sterner and more adventurous type of Frenchmen. Out of 
Normandy they issued at last to carve new kingdoms for 
themselves in southern lands, and to become the most 
vigorous representative of the Militant Christianity which 
for two centuries battled for the Holy Land against the 
Moslem. 

While the Northmen harried the northern coast and gradually 
planted themselves in northern provinces, the naval power of 
the Saracens was growing in the Mediterranean, islam and 
where they threatened to make conquest of Sicily tne Turks, 
and of Southern Italy ; though their progress in the far west of 
the continent had been finally checked. But a change was 
taking place in the character of the Saracen power. The Arab 
supremacy was passing. Barbarian Turks were pushing their 
way into the Moslem Empire as the Teutons had pushed their 
way into the dominions of Rome. They came ; they accepted 
Islam and became its most fanatical adherents, but they 
gradually made themselves also the ruling race among the 
Mohammedans ; the race which provided the strongest governors, 
the most successful captains, the most indomitable soldiers. 
But the Turk was also more intolerant and more cruel than the 
Arab, and a fiercer hostility arose between the two creeds of 
Christ and of Mohammed. The close of the eleventh century 
marks the moment of the Norman expansion and the beginning 
of the Crusades. 

In the meantime, since the death of Charlemagne, his great 
empire had again broken up into many kingdoms, though there 
remained always one emperor whose supremacy Empire and 
was usually only nominal. And while the empire Church, 
went to pieces the papacy also degenerated, sinking even to a 
scandalous depth of degradation. The empire was the first to 
recover in the powerful hands of the Saxon dynasty of the 
Ottos. The Ottos intervened forcibly to rehabilitate the char- 
acter of the papacy, and before the end of the eleventh century 



152 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

a pope with magnificent ideals was waging a spiritual war with 

the emperor for the supremacy of Christendom. Gregory vn. 

died in the bitter belief that he had been defeated, but his life 

formed an epoch from which dates the era during which the 

power of the papacy was at its height. 

Perhaps what must be regarded as the leading feature of the 

period in the west is the development of the Feudal System. 

Throughout the Middle Ages Feudalism was the 
2. Feudalism. , . . ' , ,. , r 

great obstacle to the establishment of strong 

government. It was a disintegrating force; a force, that is, 
which tended to break up any great state that might be formed, 
into a collection of provinces. It created everywhere a number 
of powerful nobles, each of whom could call an army of his own 
into the field ; while the greatest of them could often defy the 
sovereign authority of the state, and sometimes threaten to over- 
turn it altogether. 

The base principle of Feudalism is the tenure of the land on 
condition of protection given by the one party and military 
service rendered by the other. It was brought about by a 
double process. The great land-owner granted his lands to 
Lords and tenants, called vassals, on condition of their becom- 
Vassals. i n g his ' men/ and following his standard in battle, 

besides paying him certain dues which became established by 
custom. Secondly, small land-holders voluntarily became vassals 
of bigger men than themselves, to whom they surrendered their 
lands, receiving them back as tenants under feudal tenure ; the 
condition being that they should be protected against the 
attacks of other land-holders. According to the size of the 
estate, the vassal was pledged not only to fight for his lord 
himself, but to bring a certain number of retainers at his back. 
There was a perpetual tendency for all the smaller land-holders 
to become the 'men,' the vassals, of one or another of their 
big neighbours, lest one or another of the said neighbours 
should find excuse for depriving them of their lands altogether. 
A lord who had vassals himself might very well be himself, 
at the same time, the vassal of another greater lord. In fact 
the greatest lords, whether they were laymen or prelates, held 
their lands from the king, to whom they themselves did 



FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO HILDEBRAND 153 

homage as his men ; the lesser lords held their lands of the 
greater lords, and so on, down to the smallest holders of land. 

Every man was bound to have some lord, except the king 
himself, to whom the whole land of the kingdom was supposed 
to belong. But the general rule was that the King and 
vassal paid homage only to his own immediate Nobles. 
overlord, not to his lord's overlord ; so that when a baron 
defied the king his vassals were pledged to follow him against 
the king. The justice or injustice of their lord's quarrel did 
not concern the vassals. The natural result was that a king 
was apt to be very much at the mercy of the great barons, who 
were strong enough to hold their own against their neighbours ; 
whereas a great baron's vassals were none of them, as a rule, 
strong enough to set their lord at defiance. Hence every great 
baron came near to being an independent prince. This was the 
condition of affairs which was developing during the ninth, tenth, 
and eleventh centuries, by the end of which it had become 
thoroughly established. 

Charles the Great at his death left an empire which extended 
from the river Elbe on the east to the Atlantic on the west, 
thus taking in great German districts which had 3 Break-up 
been altogether outside the Roman Empire, be- of the 
sides so much of the old empire itself as lay m P ire - 
west of this boundary line. But from this general statement 
we must exclude nearly the whole of Spain, the greater part 
of which was held by the Moors, the British Isles, Europe 
and the south of Italy. On the north lay the in 814. 
Scandinavian Teutons who had not yet built up states. On 
the east between the Baltic Sea and the Danube were tribes 
either Slavonic or Mongol. South of the Danube was the 
eastern empire, the western portion of which had already 
become Slavonic ; while in the basin of the Lower Danube 
the Mongol Bulgars had established a kingdom which was 
presently to become more Slavonic than Bulgarian, though 
it retained the Bulgarian name. What we have to study 
next is the partition of Charlemagne's empire into France 
on the west, and the German or Holy Roman Empire on the 
east. 



154 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

The rule of Primogeniture was not yet recognised ; that is to 
say, great estates, kingdoms as well as others, were habitually 
Louis the divided among the monarch's sons at his death, 

Pious, 814- instead of passing undivided to the eldest son. 
Charlemagne himself would have so divided his 
empire into kingdoms, though one king was to have been as 
Roman emperor supreme head of the whole. But one son only 
survived him, and the disruption of the great dominion was 
deferred. For sixteen years Louis, to give him his French 
title, called the ' pious ' or the ' debonnaire,' ruled successfully 
enough. But he had already made his three sons into sub- 
ordinate kings; and when he married a second time, and a 
fourth son was borne to him, he deprived his other sons of 
territory assigned to them in order to provide an appanage 
for the youngest. Thereupon his sons rose up against him. 
For ten years Louis and his sons were engaged in a series of 
wars, and compacts broken by fresh wars, which were ended by 
the emperor's death, only to be renewed in the strifes of the 
three sons who survived him. 

These three, Lothar the eldest, Ludwig. or Lewis, called the 
German, and the youngest, Charles, called the Bald, divided 
Partition of the great dominion. Charles had the west with 
the Empire, the Scheldt and the Rhone as his eastern boundary. 
Ludwig had the east with the Rhine for his western boundary. 
Lothar held the centre, including Italy, and along with it 
the Imperial Crown. From him the northern portion of his 
kingdom got the name of Lotharingia, which survives as Lorraine. 
Most of the southern half, outside of Italy, comes under the 
name of Burgundy. This was the division arrived at by the 
treaty of Verdun in 843. In all subsequent partitions Italy 
goes along with the Imperial Crown whosoever the emperor 
may happen to be. 

In 877 a.d. Lothar's line had died out altogether, and his two 
brothers were both dead. Eleven years later the legitimate line 
End of the °^ Lewis the German came to an end, in the 
Eastern person of Charles the Fat, who was emperor and 

Carolingians. for a time king of the who]e dom [ n i on both of 

West and East Franks. Charles was succeeded in the German 



FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO HILDEBRAND 155 

kingdom by an illegitimate kinsman Arnulf of Carinthia, who 
also was emperor for a time, but his line came to an end with 
his son in 911. The middle kingdom had been divided between 
the East and the West Franks by Charles the Bald and Lewis 
the German, on the extinction of Lothar's family. 

Meanwhile the Carolingians in the west were a little more 
prosperous. Charles the Bald managed to appropriate Italy and 
the Imperial Crown on the death of Lothar's son, The West 
who had succeeded him as emperor. Seven years Franks - 
after his death there was none of his stock to succeed to the 
crown except a five-year-old grandson, afterwards known as 
Charles the Simple. The child was set aside and the crown was 
seized by Charles the Fat. When Charles the Fat died the child 
was again set aside and Odo or Eudes, Count of Paris, was 
elected King of the Franks, that is the West Franks. When he 
died in 899, Charles the Simple was allowed to succeed. 

A hundred years after the death of Charlemagne, the only one 
of his house who was still ruling nominally was Charles the Simple 
in the kingdom of the West Franks, now distinctively known as 
Francia, France. 

On the failure of the Carolingian line in the eastern or 
German kingdom, the Crown was bestowed by election on Conrad, 
Duke of Franconia; and the principle of election The 
to the kingdom of Germany began to be recognised. « German 
Italy, however, had been severed both from the East Km £- 
and the West Franks. After Charles the Fat it was only at 
intervals that any one was definitely recognised as 
emperor; and among those who were recognised 
at all, Arnulf was the only Carolingian. Italy in fact fell a prey 
to the rivalries of the great dukes, who attempted to restore a 
Lombard dominion when the Franks were no longer able to hold 
them in check. 

A Carolingian continued to be King of France until 987, but 
the real rulers were the dukes of France or counts of Paris — 
Robert the brother of Odo, who had reigned as France am j 
king, and his descendants. In 987 Hugh Capet, the Germany, 
grandson of Robert, was elected king, and estab- tenth centur y- 
lished a dynasty which reigned without a break for eight hundred 



1 5 6 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

years. In Germany Conrad of Franconia was succeeded as king 
by Henry called the Fowler, Duke of the Saxons. His son Otto 
the Great re-established the Roman Empire when he was crowned 
emperor at Rome in 962. Among West and East Franks alike 
the power of the great dukes and counts limited the power of 
the king. In France, in the long-run, one great noble took 
possession of the Crown and made it hereditary in his family. 
In Germany the Crown passed from the Carolingians to a duke 
of Franconia, from Franconia to the dukes of Saxony, from 
the Saxon line back to the Franconian line, and did not for 
several centuries become the hereditary possession of one 
family. 

While the grandsons of Charlemagne were quarrelling with 
each other, the incursions of the Norsemen became fiercer and 
The more extensive. They sailed up the Rhine, the 

Northmen. Scheldt, the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne. Their 
invasions of Germany were finally checked by Arnulf. In 
France they would have captured Paris, which was becoming the 
centre of the kingdom, but for the valour of Count Robert the 
Strong, and of his son Odo, who was named king on the death 
of Charles the Fat. Odo held them at bay. On Odo's death 
Charles the Simple was allowed to become king, Odo's brother 
Robert contenting himself with a role very much like that of the 
Mayors of the Palace in the Merovingian time. But even before 
the death of Charles the Bald a Norse chief, Rolf 
or Rollo, had secured a permanent footing at Rouen, 
and he gradually waxed so strong that Charles the Simple and 
Duke Robert made a treaty with him ; and the lands afterwards 
known as Normandy were assigned to him as a dukedom, while 
he acknowledged himself the vassal of the King of France and 
paid him homage. This treaty of St. Claire-sur-Ept came only a 
few years after what was really the very similar treaty of Wedmore 
The between the English king Alfred the Great and the 

Danelagh. Danes, who were established in the Danelagh. 
Both in France and England the Danes and Northmen accepted 
Christianity, and from the time that they were acknowledged as 
territorial lords the ravages of the Vikings were very much 
diminished in both countries. 



FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO HILDEBRAND 157 

The dukes of Normandy ranked with the great dukes and 
counts of France; those of Paris, Flanders, Vermandois, 
Burgundy, Aquitaine. The royal estate did not The last 
suffice to make the king a match for any of his French 
own great nobles, among whom the counts of Paris, Carolingians. 
Robert, his son Hugh the Great and grandson Hugh Capet, 
generally succeeded in holding the leading position and control- 
ling the Crown for their own purposes ; while the king was 
always endeavouring to free himself from their mastery. Hence 
to compare the position of the French king and his inability to 
rule with a strong hand, with the position of Henry the Fowler 
or Otto in Germany, who did rule with a strong hand, is scarcely 
fair ; for the strength of the Saxon kings of Germany had the 
foundation of their powerful dukedom of Saxony to rest on. It 
was not till the counts of Paris made themselves kings of France 
that the French king was so much as the most powerful among 
the French nobility. For more than a century after the accession 
of Hugh Capet, the dynasty was mainly occupied in gradually 
confirming its supremacy amongst the nobility. If William of 
Normandy had elected to strike for the Crown of France instead 
of the Crown of England, it is not impossible that the Norman 
dynasty would have replaced the Capets. 

After the death of Charles the Fat, France stood outside the 
empire to which we must give our attention. The Carolingian 
line closed in 911. Conrad of Franconia was G ermany . 
elected German king, and was followed by Henry Henry the 
the Fowler of Saxony in 918. His great work was Fowler - 
mainly to check the advance of the Slavonic and Mongol tribes 
on the east, and to organise the frontier ' mark ' of Schleswig as 
a barrier against the Danes. The two greatest divisions of the 
German peoples in Germany were the Saxons and the Franks of 
Franconia, and their agreement in electing the Saxon duke to 
the German kingship probably prevented a further rending of 
Germany. 

Henry's son Otto restored the empire as a living force, but 
he had reigned for five and twenty years as King of Germany 
before he claimed the Imperial Crown. The vigour of his 
rule which he intended to make supreme, a reality throughout 



158 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

the German kingdom, roused resistance and rebellion which 
he was strong enough to suppress. He carried out his father's 
policy of organising the frontiers against the 
Great, Slavonic tribes ; and he decisively broke a great 

German King, wave, the last for some centuries, of Mongol in- 

936 • . 

vasion. The tribes of the Magyars or Ungrians 

(whence come the names Hungary and Hungarian) poured into 

Europe from the east, and occupied what had once been the 

kingdom or empire of their kinsmen the Avars and Huns. 

They had indeed penetrated much further, carrying desolation 

before them. They had been checked by Henry the Fowler, 

but now they were decisively hurled back in the great rout at 

Lechfeld by Otto in 955 ; a battle which ranks, as a day of 

deliverance, with the repulse of the Saracens by Leo the 

Isaurian before Constantinople, and by Charles Martel at 

Poictiers. The Magyars were forced back into Hungary where 

they established themselves, adopted Christianity, and later 

became a bulwark of Christendom against their Mongol kinsmen 

the Turks and the Tartars. 

But Otto was not content w r ith strengthening the German 

kingdom. He intended to revive the ideal of empire derived 

4. The Empire fr° m Charlemagne himself. There were two heads 

Revived. Q f Christendom, temporal and spiritual, the empire 

and the papacy. The papacy must be subordinate to the empire, 

but the two must work together. With the disappearance of the 

line of Lothar, the southern portion of the central 
Italy. 

kingdom, Burgundy and Italy, had passed out of 

the control of the Carolingians without forming a third kingdom 

like those of the West and East Franks, France and Germany. 

Burgundy, as Provence, had formed an independent kingdom ; 

Italy was rent between rival dukes who tried to dominate the 

papacy. The papal elections became a farce. Pope Nicholas 1. 

had taken advantage of the dissensions of the Carolingians 

to assert the papal claim to a higher authority than that of 

emperors or princes; one of his successors bestowed the 

Decline of unappropriated Imperial Crown on an Italian duke, 

the Papacy. Berengar of Spoleto. But there was no ruling hand 

in Italy ; Papal elections were conducted in a spirit of violent 



FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO HILDEBRAND 159 

partisanship ; popes followed each other in rapid succession ; and 
then throughout the first half of the tenth century came a series 
who degraded the sacred office to the lowest depths. As a 
natural consequence the demoralisation permeated the whole 
ecclesiastical organisation in Italy, and was not without its 
corrupting influence beyond the Alps. Otto intervened in Italy, 
which he entered in arms, and was first crowned King of Italy and 
then in the following year Emperor. Otto contented otto, 
himself with removing the pope and replacing him Emperor, 962. 
by another of respectable character. He did not make a 
vigorous effort to reform the papacy ; but he definitely 
reunited Germany and Italy under the empire, and brought 
Italy into the field of the operations of the German kings. 
The change was emphasised under Otto 11., and otto II. and 
still more under Otto 111., who actually made otto nI - 
Rome his capital, and imposed two excellent German popes, 
Bruno and Gerbert, Gregory v. and Sylvester 11. of the Church. 
His idea was the restoration of the Roman Empire with Rome 
as its centre. 

Otto in. was succeeded by Henry of Bavaria, who reverted 
to German policy • that is to say, he treated Germany as the 
predominant instead of the subordinate portion of the empire. 
The control over the papacy lapsed, and for a short time the 
family of the otherwise unimportant counts of Tusculum managed 
to keep the succession to the papacy to themselves. Its char- 
acter, which the Ottos had sought to rehabilitate, again sank 
painfully low. On the other hand Henry completed the German 
kingdom by the absorption of Burgundy. He died childless, 
and a second Conrad of Franconia was elected. Franconian 
The reign of Conrad's successor Henry in. pre- Emperors. 
pared the way for a great change. The degradation of the 
papacy and the attendant demoralisation had already produced 
a reaction, and a reforming spirit was at work 
especially among the members of the Cluniac 
Order of the monks. Henry set himself to carry out a reforma- 
tion. He had not himself the slightest intention of conceding 
an iota of the Imperial supremacy to the Roman pontiff, but 
the clergy who were zealous for moral reformation were precisely 



i6o THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

the men who had the highest conception of the ecclesiastical 
authority. In endeavouring to purify the Church these were the 
men whom Henry brought into the most influential position ; 
and as the Church emerged from its moral degradation, it 
renewed its claims to supremacy with a fresh warrant derived 
from its spiritual efficiency. In 1046 there were no fewer than 
three rival popes. All three were deposed, and the emperor 
nominated his own selection, Clement 11., a German. After 
German mm ne nominated three more popes in succession, 

Popes. a ii Germans ; most notable being another Bruno, 

who ruled as Leo ix. Leo was a zealous reformer, but he was 
not content to accept the nomination of the emperor without 
the higher authority of election by the clergy. In this as in 
other matters his adviser was the monk Hildebrand. who 
continued to be the real director of papal policy until he him- 
self was elected pope as Gregory vn. in 1073. The papacy 
entered on the course, more and more openly, of claiming to be 
the supreme authority in Christendom to which emperors and 
kings must bow. The assertion of these pretensions was made 
the easier because Henry 111. was succeeded by a child, Henry iv., 
who was not able to throw down the challenge until he was 
grown up ; and even then his first occupation was a sharp struggle 
with some of the German nobles. 

As pope himself, and long before he became pope, Gregory 
vii had a definite and a splendid object before him. Somewhat 
as Samuel, prophet of Israel, claimed that the Lord 
of Hosts ruled the chosen people by the voice 
of His prophets, only suffering a king to be chosen as a sort of 
subordinate officer, so Gregory claimed that it was the will of the 
Almighty to rule through the heirs of the apostles, and especially 
the heir of St. Peter, only suffering kings and emperors as sub- 
ordinate officers. The clergy should form a great organisation of 
the spiritual servants of God, recognising no human authority 
as being set over them, but only the divine authority of the 
Church itself. Christendom was to be literally the kingdom of 
the Almighty, whose vicegerent on earth was the pope. The 
glory of God and His Church stood above all else. The whole 
theory of course involved that the clergy should live up to the 



FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO HILDEBRAND 161 

level of their pretensions. It was in entire accordance with these 
principles that the popes under Hildebrand's guidance authorised 
William of Normandy to depose King Harold of England, and 
bestowed upon the Normans in Italy lordships which were in no 
other sense theirs to give. 

Nearly the whole of Gregory's pontificate was passed in a 
struggle with the Emperor Henry iv. Gregory himself began 
the battle by forbidding Henry to make ecclesiastical appoint- 
ments. Thus began the long contest over the question of what 
was called Lay Investitures. There had been an irregularity 
about Gregory's own accession to the papacy, which warranted 
Henry in retaliating by declaring Gregory to be deposed from an 
office which he had usurped. Gregory replied by Henry IV 
excommunicating Henry and deposing him from and 
the royal office in virtue of his own authority as St. Gre ^ory VII. 
Peter's successor, to bind and to loose. Henry first found him- 
self obliged to humiliate himself in the most abject manner before 
the pope at Canossa, since the excommunication was seized by 
his own subjects as an excuse for revolt. But he was able in 
turn, on the recovery of his secular supremacy in Germany, to 
set up an antipope, and drive Gregory into that exile in which he 
died. 

It was during these years that a family of Norman warriors 
carved out for themselves kingdoms in the Mediterranean lands. 
At first they appeared merely as adventurers taking The Normans 
part in the struggles of various factions in Southern in Ital y- 
Italy and Sicily, which was now in the hands of the Arabs. One 
brother, Robert Guiscard, mastered most of Southern Italy, got 
the title of Duke of Apulia from the pope, and began to carry his 
arms across the Adriatic. A second brother Roger conquered 
Sicily. The Normans, it may be remarked, could generally be 
relied upon to side with the pope against the emperor; and it 
was to the protection of Robert Guiscard that Gregory escaped 
from Rome. William, Duke of Normandy, conquered England 
in 1066 ; and for some time to come England was Th N 
governed by foreign kings whose most important in England, 
interests lay in their continental dukedoms and 1066, 
counties, quite as much as in their English kingdom. England 

L 



i6 2 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

was in effect a province in the dominion of the Duke of Normandy 
or of the Count of Anjou. It was not till they had been almost 
entirely bereft of their possessions in France that kings of England 
began the attempt to recover them as provinces of the English 
kingdom. 

In the eastern empire after the time of disturbance which 
followed when the Isaurian dynasty came to an end, the 
5 The Emperor Basil established the Macedonian dynasty. 

Eastern In the second half of the tenth century and the 

Empire. early years of the eleventh, the Christian empire 

recovered ground in Asia and carried its frontiers as far as the 
Euphrates, taking advantage of the disorganisation which was 
coming over the eastern kaliphate. But Byzantium was 
threatened during these two centuries quite as much on its 
European frontier as in Asia. We have seen that the pure 
Slavs who crossed the Danube were admitted as settlers, and 
did not set up an independent state. The Bulgars, however, 
created a dominion of their own on the Lower Danube, which 
did develop into a Slavonic State, because the ruling Bulgars 
really became absorbed into the Slavonic population over whom 
they were at first masters ; in the same sort of way that the 
Norman conquerors of England afterwards became absorbed 
by the English. The overthrow and annexation of Bulgaria 
by Basil 11., early in the eleventh century, delivered the 
eastern empire from a neighbour that was becoming a serious 
danger. 

During these centuries also we hear in a dim confused way 
of the beginnings of Russia. Out of the north there came to 
The the Black Sea a people whom the Greeks called 

Beginning's Ros, Russians. Their names, however, and 
of Russia. customs were not Slavonic but Scandinavian. It 
is probable that Swedish adventurers -established a lordship 
over the tribes in the neighbourhood of the Baltic, and led them 
south, seeking new lands to conquer after the Scandinavian 
fashion. The traditional founder of the Russian Empire was a 
hero named Rurik, and its headquarters were first at Novgorod 
in the north and then at Kiev on the river Dnieper. In the 
long-run the Scandinavian element disappeared, but in the early 



FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO HILDEBRAND 163 

ages it was more prominent than the Slavonic, which afterwards 
either absorbed it or shook it off. The Russians made their 
attack on the eastern empire by way of the Black Sea; they 
were finally beaten off by the Emperor John Tzimisces, the 
predecessor of Basil 11. It was immediately after this that 
the Russians accepted Christianity from the Greek, not from 
the Roman, Church. 

At the end of the tenth century the western nations began 
also to be aware that a different Slavonic dominion, that of 
Poland, was establishing itself on the eastern ther 
frontier of the German domain. To the west Slavonic 
and south of the Poles another branch of the Pe °P les - 
Slavs had already established themselves in Moravia, where 
they also had become Christianised. These Moravians or 
Bohemians represent the most westerly expansion of the 
Slavs. 

Perhaps the portion of Europe which best deserved to be 

described as civilised was the Saracen dominion in Spain. 

The Ommayad kaliphs, Abdur Rahman and „ T , 

-, , 6 - Islam, 

his successors, encouraged the decorative Art 

permitted by Mohammedanism as distinct from sculpture and 
painting, the image-making which it prohibited. To us, how- 
ever, who are accustomed to look upon Mohamme- 
, - , 1 • 1 1 r • -i High civilisa- 

danism as a particularly intolerant and fanatical tion of 

religion, it is remarkable that there was a larger Moorish 
spirit of toleration, more freedom of discussion pain ' 
and inquiry, in Mohammedan Spain than was ever dreamed 
of in Christian Spain, or in the Christian world at all 
during the most part of the Middle Ages. In the Christian 
world philosophy and scientific inquiry started with assum- 
ing as fundamental truths phrases in the Bible which had 
been completely misinterpreted. A scientific inquirer was 
quite certain to be branded as being in league with the 
powers of darkness. But among the Moors the antagonism 
to knowledge did not prevail, and whatever progress was 
made in science or philosophy was to be found among 
them. 

At the same time the country enjoyed a remarkable material 



1 64 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

prosperity, and the Christians were generally prevented from 
recovering much territory beyond the Ebro and the north- 
western region of Asturias. In these regions, however, was 
Decline of formed the nucleus of what subsequently became 
Saracen the great kingdoms of Leon, Castile, and Aragon. 

Power. j n tne e i even th century the control of the kaliphs 

collapsed, and the Moorish dominion broke up into princi- 
palities, in the same sort of fashion as the Christian king- 
doms of Europe were broken up into dukedoms or counties. 
Spain ceased even nominally to acknowledge a single ruler. 
Cordova ceased to be the first city in Spain, while Seville 
and Granada were rivals for the pride of place. The 
Christians of the north grew stronger, and the time was at 
hand for a steady though gradual advance towards the recovery 
of the peninsula. 

The western kaliphate, of which the power was in fact 
limited to Spain, had broken away from the eastern kaliphate, 
The Eastern with the accession of the Abbasides. Of that 
Kaliphate. house the most splendid ruler was Harun al 
Raschid, the contemporary of Charlemagne, and like Charle- 
magne the centre of legend and romance. The Abbasides 
were kinsmen of the prophet ; but though they had achieved 
power by the aid of the Shiites, or adherents of the house of 
Ali, as kaliphs they professed the orthodox creed of the 
Sunnites. 

The glory of Bagdad faded after the death of Harun ; the 
magnificent luxury of the capital was of a kind which inevitably 
leads to demoralisation. Harun's sons struggled for supremacy 
among themselves ; and though one of them, Mamun, succeeded 
Waning of m making himself a mighty monarch, he did so to 
the Kaliphate. a great extent by the incorporation of a great 
army of mercenary soldiers drawn mainly from the north- 
eastern regions of Turkestan. The kaliphs remained, but the 
real power passed from the Abbasides to great provincial 
rulers. Africa, with the exception of Egypt, at a very early 
stage ceased to give their authority anything more than a 
nominal recognition. In Egypt itself, a descendant of Ali 
made himself supreme, and established what was virtually a 



FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO HILDEBRAND 165 

Fatimide dynasty in the latter half of the tenth century. The 
Abbasides found themselves obliged to rest chiefly on the 
support of a Persian dynasty who practically became regents 
at Bagdad. 

Then there arose in the south-eastern corner of the Saracen 
dominion, at Ghazni, in what is now Afghanistan, the great 
Sultan Mahmud, of Turkish descent, who made Mahmud of 
himself master of most of the far east, and began Ghazni, 1000. 
a series of invasions of India which resulted in the gradual 
subjection of a great part of that vast country to Mohammedan 
dynasties. Mahmud, like the Abbasides themselves, and like 
the kaliphs of Cordova, prided himself on encouraging litera- 
ture in spite of the fact that he was also a very notable 
warrior. 

This was at the beginning of the eleventh century. But the 
usual fate befell what is called the Ghaznavid dynasty of 
Mahmud. There was fierce dissension between his sons ; their 
dominion broke in pieces, and the definite supremacy of the 
Turks began with the appearance of the group The Seljuk 
known as the Seljuks. The Seljuks entered as Turks, 
conquerors ; to begin with, making themselves masters of what 
had been Media in the ancient days before Cyrus seized the 
Median throne. Then they became the champions of the 
kaliph, who had become a puppet in the hands of his ministers, 
and now became a puppet in the hands of the Turks — though 
he was still in theory both the spiritual and the secular head of 
Mohammedanism. The Seljuk armies swept over Asia, re- 
covered Syria and Palestine which had passed into the hands of 
the Egyptian Fatimides, and drove back the Greek Empire 
practically within the ancient confines of Lydia; establishing 
in fact a dominion which was almost co-extensive with the 
old empire of Cyrus, excluding Lydia. 

The unity of the Seljuk dominion however soon disappeared. 
The portion of it which lay in Asia Minor became practically 
the independent kingdom of Roum or Iconium. The Seljuks 
remained in Palestine long enough to bring about The Holy 
an important consequence of their occupation, Land. 
although the Fatimides recovered possession. For their treat- 



1 66 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

meiit of Christians, and especially of the Christian pilgrims to 
the sacred spots in the Holy Land, showed an increased harsh- 
ness ; and that harshness was largely responsible for the great 
outburst of active hostility between Islam and Christianity, 
which took shape in the crusades. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



Book iv., a.d. 476 to 1080 

GUIDING DATES 



West 
Clovis, King of the Franks. 481 
Theoderic the Ostrogoth 489-526 
Vandal kingdom destroyed 536 
Narses in Italy . . -554 
Lombard Invasion . . 568 
Gregory the Great . 590-604 
Pepin of Heristal . . 687 
Rise of Venice . . . 697 
Saracens invade Spain . 711 
Battle of Poictiers or Tours 732 
Pepin the Short, King of the 
Franks 



Charlemagne, emperor 
Egbert of Wessex 
Louis the Pious . 
Treaty of Verdun 
Alfred the Great 
Henry the Fowler 
Otto 1., German king 
Battle of Lechfeld 
Otto, emperor 
Capet dynasty 
Canute the Great 
Henry III., emperor 
Normans in Italy 
Norman Conquest 
Gregory VII., pope 



754 
768 
800 
802 
814 

843 
871-901 
918 
936 

955 
961 

987 
1017 
1039 
1040 
1066 
1073 



East 
Justinian 
Heraclius . 
Mohammed : the Hejira 
Abu Bekr, kaliph 
Arabs invade Persia . 
Omar, kaliph 
Arabs conquer Egypt . 
Leo the I saurian. 
Iconoclast movement . 
Abbasid kaliphate 
Harun al Raschid at Bagdad 
Irene, Empress . 
Emperor Basil 1. Mace 

donian dynasty 
Separation of Eastern and 

Western Churches . 
Saracens in Sicily 
Basil 11., emperor 
Mahmud of Ghazni invades 

India 
Seljuks in Armenia 
Seljuks at Jerusalem . 



527 
610 
622 
632 
632 

634 
640 
718 
725 
750 
786 
797 

867 



878 
976 

1000 
1048 
1076 



167 



1 68 THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 



LEADING NAMES 

Clovis — Theoderic — Justinian — Belisarius — Narses — Alboin — 
Gregory the Great — Heraclius — Mohammed — Leo the Isaurian — 
Charles Martel— Pepin the Short — Harun al Raschid— Charlemagne 
— Alfred— Henry the Fowler— Otto the Great— Hugh Capet— Mahmud 
of Ghazni — Canute — Emperor Henry III. — Emperor Henry IV. — 
William the Conqueror— Gregory VII.— Robert Guiscard. 

Monasticism. The clergy were divided into two main sections, 
called 'Regular' and ' Secular.' The term Regular means 'under a 
rule ' (Latin, regula), that is, vowed to obey the particular rules of a 
monastic order. We should have a fair equivalent to Regular and 
Secular, if we spoke instead of monks and parish clergy. The 
monks lived together in monasteries. Bishops, who were the heads 
of the Secular clergy, did not control the monasteries, though they 
might themselves be chosen from members of the monastic orders. 
The abbots at the head of the greater monasteries were on an 
equality with bishops. Monks were always under a vow not to 
marry; the Seculars were forbidden by the 'Canons' or ecclesias- 
tical laws to take wives, but were not under a special vow ; so that 
whenever and wherever Church discipline was lax, it was not unusual 
for them to have wives. 

Fiefs. When a vassal held a fief from an overlord, it continued, in 
the natural order of things, in his hands and those of his heirs. On 
failure of heirs, the fief lapsed to the overlord. This was one way 
in which kings, who were necessarily overlords of all the landowners, 
increased the estates in their own hands. Estates also reverted to 
the Crown, when a vassal forfeited them by treason or otherwise. 
When the inheritance of an estate passed to a woman, her marriage 
added it to her husband's estates ; thus marriage was one of the 
means by which vast estates accumulated in the hands of particular 
families. On the other hand, great estates got broken up where 
law and custom permitted them to be divided among several sons. 
This was common throughout the earlier Middle Ages : in the later 
Middle Ages it was stopped in some countries, notably in England, by 
the establishment of the law of primogeniture — that is, the eldest 
son alone inherited. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 169 

India. Buddhism had decayed, and a very much modified form of 
the old Brahminism — the modern Hinduism — took its place. The 
Hindu (or Aryan) conquest of Southern India was completed pro- 
bably about the beginning of the period, and Hinduism in one or 
other of its forms was dominant in all but the most remote hill- 
districts. After the rise of Islam, Arab invaders entered the Punjab, 
but made no permanent conquest. At the beginning of the eleventh 
century, however, Mahmud of Ghazni invaded the north-west 
repeatedly, and from that time forward Mohammedan dynasties 
gradually extended their sway over the Hindus of Northern India, 
and subsequently over much of the south. 

The Dark Ages. This period is commonly given the title of ' The 
Dark Ages. 5 The rule of Rome had enforced law and order, even 
if often accompanied by corruption and oppression throughout the 
empire ; life and property were generally safe. The break up of 
the empire left it under the changing dominion of barbarian tribes, 
among whom wars were never-ending ; property was held only by 
the strong hand, and a precarious peace was to be found only in the 
monasteries. The barbarians adopted Christianity, but to a great 
extent their own heathen superstitions were incorporated in their 
new religion ; the Church, the one civilising influence, was inclined 
to go very far in its concessions to prevailing creeds, in order to 
bring their adherents within the possible range of its own influence. 
It was only in the monasteries that literature, science, and all peace- 
ful arts could be practised, and inevitably the one aim with which 
those pursuits were followed was that of increasing ecclesiastical 
influence. Hence, intellectually, the world stood still or retro- 
gressed ; there was more progress among the Mohammedans than 
in the Christian nations. 

Serfdom was the form taken by slavery in the new communities. 
It was an essential part of feudalism. The characteristic distinction 
between slavery and serfdom or ' villeinage ' was that the slave was 
the owner's absolute property, the villein had certain rights, and was 
attached to the soil. That is, he was obliged to serve the land- 
holder on whose soil he lived. He could not be sold, but he could 
not transfer himself from one land-holder to another. The con- 
querors did not carry off the conquered into captivity after the fashion 
of Shalmaneser and Nebuchadnezzar ; they remained, took possession 
of the soil, and compelled the conquered to till it for them, giving 
them a proportion of the produce, but requiring from them various 
other services besides the cultivation of the plots on which they were 



i 7 o THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 

allowed to live. Usage set a limitation to the demands for service 
and for produce which the lord might make upon his serfs ; what 
was additional had to be paid for with some form of wages, and on 
the other hand the villeins were allowed to substitute some form of 
payment for service. Thus forced labour came to be replaced by 
paid labour, and the labourer paid rent instead of giving service. 
Hence villeinage had practically disappeared in England near the 
beginning of the fifteenth century ; but on the continent serfdom 
lasted much longer, and was not brought to an end till the French 
Revolution. In Russia the serfs were not emancipated till the 
second half of the nineteenth century. 



BOOK V 
THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 



CHAPTER XII 

THE CRUSADES, AND THE EAST 

At the close of the eleventh century the nations of Europe were 
beginning to take shape in the west. England and Scotland 
were established as separate kingdoms. France 
was a separate kingdom, so was Germany. The 
middle kingdom of Burgundy had been absorbed partly into 
France and mainly into Germany. Italy was a collection of 
principalities which never got themselves moulded The Western 
into a single nation until the nineteenth century. Nations, 1090. 
Their head was supposed to be the emperor, as King of the 
Romans. Southern Italy under Norman chiefs had completely 
separated itself from the eastern empire, and was shortly to be 
united under one prince with Sicily. In the western or Spanish 
peninsula the decisive supremacy of the Moors had come to an 
end. The Christian states from the north-west and north were 
already beginning to recover ground rapidly. On the north of 
Europe, Norway, Sweden and Denmark formed three separate 
states ; but of these Denmark alone influenced European politics, 
though Norway played a part in the history of Scotland. The 
German Empire had pushed eastwards across the Elbe, and its 
frontier now lay a little to the west of the Oder, although the 
Slavonic duchy of Bohemia is not very definitely included in its 
borders. Beyond the border crossing from north The Eastern 
to south comes first the duchy of Pomerania Nations, 
attached to Denmark; then the Slavonic Poland; then Hungary, 
the dominion of the Magyars, extending to the Danube and its 
tributary the Save. The eastern empire had shrunk to very 
small limits. After the time of Basil n., its vigour had 



i74 



THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 



decayed, and the Seljuks had swept it back out of Asia Minor 
till their kingdom of Iconium included the greater part of it. 
The Seljuks were still the dominant force in Western Asia, though 
they recognised the Kaliph of Bagdad as the representative of 
the prophet. Palestine, however, and a part of Syria, were 
attached to the rival Fatimide kaliphate of Egypt. 

This then was the position of the civilised world at least as 
known to the westerns at the opening of the crusading era. 
The Crusad- That era lasted for nearly two centuries. It was 
ing Era. marked by the gradual consolidation of the king- 

doms of England and Scotland, of France, and those of Spain ; 
by the great development of the papal power in its long contest 
with the German emperors ; by the wreckage of the eastern 
empire, which was really brought about by the western 
Christians ; and finally, by that struggle between East and West 
which goes by the name of the crusades. 

The crusades, or the battle between Islam and Christianity, 
claim our first attention. 

On the throne of the grievously weakened Byzantine Empire 
the dynasty of the Comneni was just established. The Emperor 
2. The First Alexius appealed in vain to the Christians of the 
Crusades. wes t to stem the advancing tide of the Turkish 

power. It was time for a united Europe to make a determined 
stand against the followers of Mohammed. But it was not easy 
to persuade Europe to anything in the shape of 
united action. A different kind of appeal from that 
made by Alexius was required. The appeal came from Peter 
the Hermit, who had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and seen 
the cruelties to which Christians were subjected in the Holy 
Land, and the desecration of the spots which all Christians held 
sacred. He came back to Europe, and his fervid eloquence 
fired the hearts of his hearers. The pope, Urban il, 
Peter the flung himself zealously into the cause. Peter the 

Hermit. Hermit went forth preaching, with the pope's 

authority. Urban struck while the iron was at its hottest. A 
great council was held at Clermont, to which were gathered 
princes and prelates and nobles from all parts of Europe, together 
with a great concourse of lesser folk. To passionate pleadings 



THE CRUSADES, AND THE EAST 175 

for the redemption from the infidel of all that Christians held 

most sacred were added promises that all who took up the War 

for the Cross should receive their reward in pardon 

c 1 • -11- t it m . Council of 

lor their misdeeds in the life to come. The Clermont: 

eloquence of the pope was answered by the shout First Crusade, 

of the assembled multitude, ' It is the will of God ; 

it is the will of God'; and princes, prelates and nobles, and 

multitudes of the meaner folk, pledged themselves to the sacred 

cause. There is no need to suggest that the pope was not 

himself actuated by the purest zeal for a cause which all men 

held to be entirely righteous; but the political gain to the 

papacy itself was enormous, because the pope declared himself 

emphatically as the head of Christendom, the inspirer of the 

great enterprise. 

But the crusading movement was not that of the united nations 
of Europe. Emperor and kings did not convene national armies 
to advance in their allied might against the eastern 
powers ; it was a movement of individuals. Great the Move- 
nobles and captains took the Cross, and individuals ment - 
took the Cross to serve under them. It was a purely volunteer 
movement ; and if thousands of the volunteers were actuated by 
the religious motive, thousands of them were also adventurers 
who hoped to win new possessions for themselves in the 
east. 

An army bent on conquest requires organisation, and of this 
the nobles and princes were well enough aware. But popular 
and ignorant enthusiasm would not wait for organi- 1096. The 
sation. A vast rabble gathered and clamoured to First Army, 
be led to the Holy Land, and set out on their march through 
Europe under the leadership of Peter the Hermit himself and a 
captain known as Walter the Penniless. Utterly without order 
or discipline they aroused hostility wherever they went, and 
committing countless outrages themselves they were for the most 
part cut to pieces before they reached Constantinople. The 
real army started later, counting in its ranks the comparatively 
disciplined forces of great nobles like Raimond, Count of 
Toulouse; Robert, Duke of Normandy, eldest son of the 
Conqueror and brother of William Rufus, King of England ; the 



176 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

Norman Bohemond of Tarentum in Southern Italy, with his 
nephew Tancred ; and Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lor- 
The Great raine. But at best the army was a collection of troops 
Army, commanded by captains, most of whom were quite as 

much bent on personal aggrandisement as on any higher object. 
The Emperor Alexius had wanted a western army to help him 
in the recovery of his own dominions. The great host of the 
crusaders, which arrived before Constantinople, was thinking of 
nothing less than of serving him. However, he made a con- 
venient; compact with them, under which they did homage to 
him as his ' men ' for so long as they should remain in his 
territory. It was apparently understood that the boundary of 
Imperial territory was to be drawn somewhere beyond the range 
of Mount Taurus, outside of which limit the crusaders might 
take what they chose for their own. 

So the crusaders marched through the Seljuk dominion of 
Asia Minor, defeating the Turks on their way, but hardly troubling 
Capture of themselves about securing the country. Edessa 
Edessa and beyond the Euphrates was secured, and shortly 
Antioch, 1098. afterwards Antioch fell after a long siege. It was 
fortunate that rivalries were as prevalent in high places among 
the Mohammedans as among the Christians. Bohemond 
managed to keep Antioch to himself. 

It was not till next year that the main force appeared before 
Jerusalem and began the siege of the Holy City. Jerusalem was 
Jerusalem carried by storm ; there was a great slaughter of the 
taken, 1099. Moslems, and the Christians were masters of the 
Holy Places. 

Palestine was not to be made a present to the Greek 
emperor ; the conquered territory was to be a Latin principality. 
Raimond of Toulouse had become discredited by the obviousness 
of his self-seeking ; Bohemond was disposed of at Antioch ; 
Robert of Normandy declined to be a candidate for the Crown 
of Jerusalem ; and Godfrey of Bouillon, than whom probably no 
worthier choice could have been made, was elected. Character- 
istically, he declined to wear a kingly crown in the city where 
the Saviour had been crowned with thorns, but he accepted 
the office laid upon him. 



THE CRUSADES, AND THE EAST 177 

The new Latin kingdom was to be administered as a complete 
and perfect example of the feudal system of society. The 
system was embodied in the code called the Assize 3 The Latin 
of Jerusalem ; but it is undoubtedly an error to Kingdom of 
ascribe this compilation to Godfrey himself, who Jerusalem, 
died within the year, and was succeeded by his brother Baldwin. 
Godfrey and Tancred stand out conspicuously as the most 
admirable types of the chivalry of their time, a time in which it 
is difficult to discover characters of any real nobility. These 
two may be accounted precursors of that higher type of chivalry 
which reached its best development in the age of Simon 
de Montfort and Edward 1. It was well for Europe when 
knighthood began to model itself upon men like Godfrey and 
Tancred, rather than men like William Rufus. 

What we speak of as the crusades mean in general the great 
expeditions of large forces encouraged by European princes, 
which took place at intervals usually of about a wn a tthe 
generation, during the next hundred and seventy Crusades 
years. It was not however these expeditions on a were - 
great scale which were their most important characteristic. From 
the time when the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was first founded 
the forces permanently in the east were not large. They 
required to be perpetually supplemented, and there was a 
perpetual stream of military pilgrims to the Holy Land, who 
went to humble themselves in its Holy Places, but could also 
find opportunity for doing battle with the Saracens. The east 
became a sort of military school for venturesome knights, whose 
own feudal superiors could not find them a convenient supply of 
fighting. There was nearly always fighting to be had in Syria, 
accompanied by a comfortable sense that a man might compensate 
for a good deal of moral aberration by trying to kill a few 
Turks. So the stream flowed out and flowed back, but 
flowed always ; and thus large numbers from the knighthood 
of Europe gathered from their eastern experiences ideas 
which they would never have acquired while they abode at 
home in the west. 

Baldwin 1. was succeeded by Baldwin 11., his kinsman. The 
Christian kingdom and principalities were strengthened along 

M • 



178 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

the seaboard from Asia Minor to the borders of Egypt. Baldwin 
was succeeded by Fulk of Anjou, followed by his son Baldwin 

Fall of IIL > w ^° was no more tnan a ^°y at t ^ ie timQ °^ 

Edessa, his accession. Almost immediately afterwards the 

1145. Turks attacked and captured Edessa at the north- 

east of the Christian kingdom. 

The fall of Edessa was the immediate cause of the second 
crusade ; its inspiration came from the great monk, Bernard of 
Clairvaux, the greatest figure in the ecclesiastical world of that 
time. The second crusade was not a success, although it was 

headed by the German Emperor Conrad and the 
Crusade, French king, Louis vn. The expedition was a 

1147 - mighty one, but mismanagement, dissensions and 

treachery broke it to pieces. The way was being made ready for 
a great advance of the Moslem arms. 

During these earlier years of the kingdom of Jerusalem there 
had grown up the two famous orders of the Knights Templars 

and the Knights of St. John or Hospitallers. These 
Templars were orders of knights who took religious vows of 

and celibacy and poverty like monks, but were sworn to 

Hospi a ers. ^.^ ^eii lives to fighting against the infidels. 
They admitted to their ranks none but men of high birth. At 
first brilliant soldiers in the service of the Cross, the orders 
soon acquired great wealth and vast possessions. In later days 
the Templars at least were charged with having entered into 
treasonous relations with the Turks, which is quite possible, and 
also with having leagued themselves with the powers of dark- 
ness — a less plausible charge to modern ears. But there is no 
manner of doubt that they did entirely degenerate from the ideals 
which moved the founders of the order. 

The Latin kingdom did not recover ground, though much 
might have been done by a more skilful prince than Amalric, 

the brother and successor of Baldwin in. For 

Egypt was rent with faction, and one of the 
factions appealed for aid to the Christians. The opportunity 
was thrown away; a Seljuk general and his army were also 
called in, and it was the Seljuk who made himself master of Egypt 
in the character of vizier or chief minister of the Egyptian kaliph. 



THE CRUSADES, AND THE EAST 179 

The Seljuk vizier was succeeded by his nephew Salah-ed-din 
Yusuf, familiar in history and romance as the great Soldan 
Saladin, who made it his business to restore and complete the 
supremacy of the Turks in the Mohammedan world. 

The reconquest of Palestine itself was only a part of the 
Imperial designs of Saladin. To him the reconquest of Asia 
Minor and the mastery of Mesopotamia mattered 4. second 
more than a strip of territory between Asia Minor Period, 
and Egypt, which was never a real menace to the Moslem power. 
Still, it did form a part of his scheme ; and he was materially 
aided in it by the dissensions which arose within 
the Latin kingdom itself. The successor of 
Amalric was Baldwin iv. But Baldwin's great qualities were 
of no avail against the terrible disease of leprosy to which 
he was a victim, and when he died there was a bitter contest 
for the Latin Crown. The successful claimant was the incom- 
petent Guy of Lusignan, Baldwin's brother-in-law. The Latin 
But King Guy was ill-supported. Saladin, who Kingdom, 
had been decisively defeated by Baldwin, fell upon 1186, 
the Christian kingdom, smote its armies at the battle of Tiberias, 
and then recaptured city after city till at last Jerusalem itself was 
in his hands. The small province of Tripolis, and the fortress 
of Tyre, valiantly defended by that Conrad of Montferrat (who 
figures in Scott's Talisman ), were almost all that remained to 
the Christians. 

The capture of Jerusalem once more seemed to have roused 
Europe to a great crusade, which should have been overwhelm- 
ing. Even the strife between the pope and the The Third 
emperor was hushed by that great disaster. Crusade, 
Frederick Barbarossa, one of the greatest of the 1189# 
emperors ; Philip Augustus, King of France ; Richard the Lion 
Heart, Lord of Aquitaine, of Normandy, of half France, and King 
of England to boot ; dukes and counts innumerable; — took the 
Cross for the deliverance of the Holy Land. The emperor 
and his great army went by land; the rest descended upon 
Palestine by sea. The German army drove its way through 
Asia Minor, only to go utterly to pieces when the emperor died 
suddenly just as it was entering Syria. The other princes 



180 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

gathered before Acre, but were held inert by feuds among their 
leaders. The feuds only became the fiercer with the late arrival 
of Richard of England, the ablest soldier among them, but the 
most impracticable of allies. 

Acre was taken, but enthusiasm for the cause had vanished. 
Princes and dukes one after another began with one accord 
to discover excellent reasons for returning to their 
own dominions. Richard and those who remained 
with him performed brilliant feats of arms, but neither achieved 
a conquest, nor displayed statesmanship nor diplomacy * and 
the third crusade ended with an armistice which left the sea- 
board in the hands of the Christians from Tyre to Jaffa, but kept 
Jerusalem in the hands of the Turks. 

The inspiration of the third crusade was the most powerful 
which had moved Europe since the time of Peter the Hermit. 
The crusade itself had been wrecked by the persistent inability 
of the Christians to subordinate personal claims and ambitions 
to victory in what all professed to regard as the cause of 
Christianity. The first enthusiasm had died out, and was 
never to be aroused again. There were more great expeditions, 
but it is difficult to say how many of them are entitled to be 
called crusades. That which is generally called the fourth 
Fourth followed hard after the third. It was organised 

Crusade. by the German Emperor, Henry vi. ; but he took 

no part in it himself, and its successful beginnings turned into 
ignominious collapse. 

The fifth crusade came with the opening of the thirteenth 
century. It was transformed into an attack on the Greek 
Empire instead of on the Moslems. We shall hear more of 
Fift . it in another chapter. Here it will be sufficient to 

Crusade, say that the Imperial dominion in Europe was 

1203, partitioned, and the so-called Latin Empire set up, 

which lasted for about half a century, after which there was a 
Greek restoration. 

The sixth crusade was undertaken by the Emperor Frederick 
ii. But the pope and the emperor were in extreme antagonism 
to each other, and matters reached a stage at which Frederick 
found that whether he started or whether he did not start his 



THE CRUSADES, AND THE EAST 181 

proceedings were equally certain to be condemned. When he 
did sail, it was under the papal ban. He made Egypt his objec- 
tive, since that country was now coming to be g^^ 
regarded as the real gate of Palestine. Frederick, Crusade, 
like a modern statesman, preferred diplomacy to 1229, 
fighting, if he could thereby gain his ends ; and in fact he ob- 
tained from the Egyptian sultan a treaty which virtually restored 
to the Christians Jerusalem itself, with other sacred spots, besides 
the port of Jaffa. Frederick was crowned King of Jerusalem, 
while the clergy unanimously treated him as an excommunicated 
enemy of the Church. Frederick's diplomatic triumph was only 
a fresh cause of offence, and he himself returned to Europe to 
continue his contest with the pope. From the point of view of 
Christianity, the spectacle presented to the Moslems was scarcely 
edifying. 

As a natural result the peace was not maintained. Eleven 
years later there was an English crusade. This, which may be 
called the seventh, won what was practically a re- gey^^ 
newal of the treaty with Frederick ; chiefly perhaps Crusade, 
because the sultans of Egypt and Syria were at 1240, 
odds with each other. Then came the disastrous and devastat- 
ing expansion of the Mongols, which drove before it a host of 
barbaric tribes from the east, who inundated Palestine and 
wrought appalling havoc. 

The kingdom of Jerusalem was once more shattered, and an 
eighth crusade was headed by King Louis ix. of France. He 
invaded Egypt ; but the first successes had a disas- Eighth 
trous effect on the discipline of the army, which and Ninth 
brought about a tremendous rout of the crusading Crusades - 
force. Louis himself was made a prisoner. Ultimately he was 
ransomed, and again some years later he headed a ninth crusade. 
He died before reaching Egypt, and the command of the crusad- 
ing army was taken up by Prince Edward, who was soon to 
become Edward i. of England. One campaign, though not 
unsuccessfully conducted, was sufficient to show the prince that 
he could accomplish nothing of permanence, and he obtained 
practically nothing more than a truce for ten years. The king- 
dom of Jerusalem became merely the shadow of a name, since 



182 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

the crusading spirit of Europe was thoroughly exhausted. For 

two centuries more we hear of princes and captains who made 

End of the pious resolutions to strike one more blow for the 

Crusades, Cross in Palestine, but they invariably found that 

1 the blow must be deferred until some other task 

nearer home was completed. The last real crusade was that 

of Prince Edward, if even that can be called a real one. A 

few years later the order of the Knights Templars was destroyed 

by the King of France, though the Knights Hospitallers survived 

in Cyprus and in Rhodes and in Malta for some centuries. 

The era of the crusades in its earlier stages was not without 

its advantages for the Greek Empire. Alexius Comnenus and 

5. Eastern his successors were men of ability, and the establish- 

Europe. ment of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was a 

The Greek 

Empireunder check on the advance of the Seljuks, whose 

theComneni. dominions were already breaking up into several 

states. The Greek influence was extended in Asia Minor, and 

the emperors were able to deal vigorously with the enemies who 

had threatened their European territories on the north. On the 

other hand they lost the last remnants of their possessions in 

Southern Italy when the Normans became masters of Naples. 

There was a moment when it even seemed possible that the 

Emperor Manuel might effect a reconciliation with the papacy, 

and appear as its ally in the struggle between Alexander in. and 

Frederick Barbarossa, which is recorded in the next chapter. 

But reconciliation could not from the papal point of view mean 

anything short of the subjection of the Greek Church to the 

papal authority. Manuel was not long in finding out that 

ecclesiastical agreement was impossible, and that the western 

emperor was more likely to assert his own claims to be the 

universal Emperor of Christendom than to permit any extension 

of the claims of Byzantium. 

In fact Latin Christendom was hostile to Greek Christendom, 

and this was made manifest when a crusade was diverted from 

The Greek Palestine in the time of Innocent in., and 

Emperors ex- wa s directed instead against the Greek Empire 

mainly for the benefit of the Venetians. The 

Greek princes were forced to betake themselves to Asia Minor, 



THE CRUSADES, AND THE EAST 183 

while the European peninsula was divided among the so-called 
crusaders ; Venice which had provided the ships receiving the 
lion's share. The conquerors dealt as much destruction in Con- 
stantinople as if they had been led by an Alaric or an Attila. 
The crusaders received papal commendation and blessing, and 
set up Baldwin, Count of Flanders, as a new emperor, the 
Venetian doge having declined the office. To this new empire 
we must apply the common term 'Latin' or 'Frank,' the name 
by which all the western Europeans without discrimination were 
known to the Moslems. It was the mission of this Latin king- 
dom to overturn whatever was established in the Greek world, 
and to reconstruct the east on western models. 

In Asia Minor, however, the Greek line maintained itself and 
Greek provinces developed, notably at Trebizond on the Black 
Sea, which later became independent dominions. 

The story of the Latin Empire is what the Latin Empire 
deserved. Bulgaria sought to revive its own dominion, and 
struck fierce blows against the new empire. The Latins at Con „ 
empire had hardly struggled through half a century stantinople, 
of existence, when the Greeks once more got 1204 =- 1261 - 
possession of Constantinople, and the Latin dominion came to 
an end. But the old power of the empire was irrecoverably 
lost, although 200 years were to pass before it fell finally to the 
Ottoman power. 

Europe on the east of the German Empire and north of the 
Byzantine Empire was occupied almost entirely by Slavonic 
peoples of varying types and varying degrees of civilisation or 
uncivilisation, except where the Mongol Magyars The g]avg 
had thrust in a wedge in Hungary, leaving the 
Bulgarians behind them on the Danube, and behind them 
sundry tribes which are generally called Turkish — the Cumans 
and Pechenegs — who have taken no permanent place in history. 
On the north of Hungary lay Poland, and on the east of Poland 
lay those various duchies and kingdoms which pass by the name 
of the Russian Empire. These two Slavonic states were 
cut off from the Baltic almost entirely by more barbaric 
Slavonic tribes, among whom are numbered the Prussians. It is 
curious that the non-German Prussian people should have given 



1 84 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

their name to the greatest of the German kingdoms which 
should more properly have retained its own name of 
Brandenburg. 

During the crusading period the districts on the south of the 
Baltic Sea were colonised, and to a great extent Germanised by 
The Teutonic the Saxons. The work was carried further along 
Knights. the eastern shores of the Baltic by the half-military, 

half-religious orders called the Knights of the Sword and the 
Teutonic Knights, instituted after the model of the Knights 
Templars and Hospitallers. These realms, however, were never 
really brought under the sway of the empire ; they were the last 
outposts of the heathen in Europe, and the Teutonic Knights 
were Christian outposts among them, offering an occasional 
alternative to Palestine and Spain for adventurous spirits who 
desired to do battle with the pagans. They passed eventually 
either to Brandenburg or to the Polish or the Russian 
kingdom. 

Poland advanced slowly. The progress of Russia, which with 
the Greek Empire was the buffer between Aryan Europe and 
The Mongols the Mongolian peoples of Asia, was stopped and 
in Russia. thrown back for centuries by a tremendous incur- 
sion of Tartar hordes in the thirteenth century. The Tartars or 
Mongols surged even further to the west ; they poured into 
Poland, and won a great victory at Liegnitz ; they turned into 
Hungary where they threatened to displace the Magyars. Then 
apparently for no more convincing reason than the death of their 
Khan they retired, contenting themselves with setting up a 
dominion on the Volga to which the Russians remained in 
subjection. 

This irruption was a part of the sudden and tremendous ex- 
pansion of the Mongols under the leadership of Timujin, better 
The Mongol known by his title of Genghis Khan. The Mongol 
Expansion. torrent swept through Western Asia as well as 
through Europe. It completed the disruption of the kaliphate 
of Bagdad, and in fact brought it to an end. The Seljuks were 
wise in time, and escaped annihilation by submission. But when 
the tide rolled down upon Egypt, the power which had shattered 
the crusade of St. Louis proved equal to the task of rolling back 



THE CRUSADES, AND THE EAST 185 

the Mongols. From this time forward Egypt was ruled by the 
Mamelukes, a magnificent body of soldiery composed primarily 
of young slaves trained to arms. Mameluke captains T^e Mame- 
succeeded each other as masters of Egypt, but lukes. 
the Mameluke soldiers proved themselves more than a match 
for all foreign enemies. 

The Mongol tide rolled eastwards as well as westwards ; it 
brought all China under its sway. Perhaps its most striking 
characteristic was the completeness of its tolerance for all re- 
ligions, and the thoroughness with which as a rule it wiped out 
those who had defied it. The dominion, however, so vast and 
so suddenly achieved, could not last, and the Mongol Empire 
soon broke up. 




EUROPE in 1300 

To illustrate Chapters XI II -XV 

Boundaries of the Empire and France 

Extent of Angeuin Dominions in France*. 



Emery Walker sc. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE WEST IN THE CRUSADING ERA 

Pope Gregory vii. died in exile, believing himself defeated, 
while an anti-pope set up by the Emperor Henry claimed the 
obedience of the Church. But before he him- i. Empire 
self had ascended the papal throne, when he was and Papacy. 
still Hildebrand, he had secured the papal decree which placed 
the papal election in the hands of the cardinals, the select 
band or college of bishops, priests and deacons 
appointed as counsellors by the popes. The 
College of Cardinals repudiated the Imperial appointment as 
having no authority, and chose Pope Victor and after him 
Urban n. The emperor had his supporters chiefly among 
the German ecclesiastics,, who did not wish to be subordinate 
to the Italians, and were not in love with the rigorous views 
on ecclesiastical discipline which formed a fundamental part 
of Gregory's conception of Church policy. But the Church 
at large held by the Gregorian party, which magnified the 
ecclesiastical against the secular office. Henry was paralysed 
by contests with the great nobles of the empire and with his 
own sons. Pope Urban strengthened his position immensely, 
as we have seen, by the part he played in connection with the 
first crusade. 

Finally, the emperor was compelled to abdicate, giving 
place to his son Henry v., who had owed his advancement 
largely to ecclesiastical support. He was no 
sooner established on the throne than he reasserted 
his claims in the question on investitures ; his right, that is, in 
effect to bestow ecclesiastical dignities. The contest in its 

1S7 



188 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

most serious form was brought to an end by the agreement of 
1 122 called the Concordat of Worms, whereby it was settled 
that ecclesiastical dignitaries should be chosen by the cathedral 
chapters, that is, the clergy definitely associated with the 
cathedrals, and should be invested with ecclesiastical authority 
by the Church; but that they should also do homage to the 
emperor or king for the temporalities, in effect the land held 
by them from him as his vassals. 

On Henry's death he left no son, and his nominee as 
successor, Frederick of Swabia, was rejected in favour of 
The Swabian Lothair of Saxony. On his death, however, Conrad 
Line - of Swabia was elected German king; and from 

this period dates the rivalry of the Swabian house of Hohen- 
staufen and the Saxon house of the Welfs or Guelfs, the 
rivalry between the Guelfs and Ghibellines. The name 
Ghibelline is the Italian corruption of Waiblingen, which, like 
Hohenstaufen, was a place-name of the Swabian house. The 
name Hohenstaufen, however, is the one usually appropriated to 
the dynasty. Conrad was never crowned emperor. He was much 
occupied with the antagonism of the rival Saxon house, and 
took a reluctant and far from successful part in the ignominious 
second crusade. 

On his death the election fell not on his son, but on 
his nephew Frederick, known as Barbarossa, whose mother 
2. Frederick was a Guelf. Frederick's first concern was with 
Barbarossa, Italy. He entered the peninsula primarily with 
1152-1190. fae intention of lowering the pride of the great 
city of Milan. His arms were immediately successful, and 
he withdrew again after receiving the Imperial Crown from 
Pope Hadrian iv., the only Englishman who has ever 
occupied the papal chair. But he very soon found himself 
obliged to return. 

As a general rule in Europe during the Middle Ages our 
attention is attracted to the power of great nobles acting 
Cities of perpetually so as to prevent the Crown from 

Germany acquiring an effective supremacy. But beside 

and Italy. the power f tne no bl es , we find in Germany 
that certain great cities achieved a power which gave them the 



THE WEST IN THE CRUSADING ERA 189 

same kind of independence that the great nobles had. In 
Germany the policy of Frederick fostered the free-cities and 
multiplied them as a counterpoise to the nobility. But the city 
development was more marked in Italy than in Germany. All 
over the northern portion of Italy, which was now called 
Lombardy, there had developed a large number of city states 
almost on the ancient model. One great city, Venice, still 
stood outside the western Empire ; it had persistently professed 
allegiance to the eastern. It had already grown great in its 
isolation, and the Venetian fleets were the most effective 
opponents of the Saracens in the Mediterranean. Venice and 
Venice however stood outside the Imperial quarrels, Lombardy. 
though it was one of the greatest of the Italian cities. Milan, 
Pavia, Parma, Modena, and Bologna in Lombardy, Genoa, Pisa, 
and Florence, were some of the cities which had attained to 
the highest prosperity. Naturally there were rivalries between 
the cities, and Milan was beginning to hold an ascendency 
which threatened to become oppressive. In short the position 
of affairs is extremely suggestive of the political conditions of 
Greece and of Italy fifteen hundred years before. Among 
these cities the emperor appears as the paramount power, 
responsible for order, to whom obedience is due. But as a 
matter of fact the emperor is in the eyes of the Italians a 
foreigner and a barbarian, almost as the Persian monarch was a 
foreigner and a barbarian in the eyes of the Ionian Greeks. 

Frederick intervened in Italy partly at least at the call of the 
cities which were threatened by the growing power of Milan. 
But his intervention was a vigorous assertion of F re a er i C k an( j 
his own authority. The emperor was more the Lombard 
dangerous than Milan, and this fact was em- Lea ^ ue - 
phasised when Frederick returned to Italy and laid the 
obstinate city in ruins. 

The friendship between emperor and pope had been short- 
lived. Hadrian himself reasserted the claim of the Holy Sea 
to stand above the emperor, and Hadrian's successor Alexander 
in. proved himself a very effective antagonist. Frederick was 
no less determined to assert the Imperial supremacy as it had 
been exercised by Charlemagne and Otto. The whole moral 



190 



THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 



support of the papacy was given to the movement against the 
German monarch's ascendency in Italy. A number of the 
Lombard cities united in the Lombard League for the expulsion 
of the foreigner from Italian territory. The struggle was long 
and fiercely contested ; but the Lombard League was finally 
successful, and its cause was won in the great victory of Legano. 
The emperor was not indeed expelled from Italy, but the 
cities secured a virtual independence. Venice always adopting 
the attitude of a neutral at last acted as mediator between pope 
Empire anc * emperor, and Frederick withdrew the claim 

League, of the secular power to supremacy over the 

and Papacy, spiritual. Alexander in. in effect raised the 
papacy to the height of its power; for a similar struggle had 
been in progress at the same time in England between the 
Crown and the Church, represented by Henry n. and Thomas 
a Becket. In that struggle the Archbishop lost his life, and, 
dying, won the victory for the Church. 

At first sight our sympathies are apt to be drawn wholly to 
the side of the Italian cities in the struggle to shake off the yoke 
of a foreign dominion. A closer examination must convince 
The Imperial us a l so that tne Imperial supremacy in Italy never 
Ideal. could have been anything but a foreign dominion, 

a dominion of Germans over Italians. But it is no less 
necessary to recognise that the ideal for which Frederick was 
fighting was not that of a German dominion. He was not an 
aggressive conqueror happily defeated ; he was not even the 
successor of conquerors striving to maintain an authority which 
his predecessors had won. There were on his side Italians who 
supported him from purely selfish motives. But there were 
others who were devoted to the Imperial ideal as an ideal. Their 
conception and Frederick's was that of the unity of the 
Christian commonwealth, acknowledging the emperor as the 
head of the commonwealth on earth. It was a conception 
which precisely corresponded to that of Hildebrand, which 
regarded Christendom as a unity under the governance of a 
spiritual authority supreme over secular powers, regulating them 
all and claiming the obedience of them all. The Imperialists 
would have placed this supreme authority in the Emperor 



THE WEST IN THE CRUSADING ERA 191 

instead of the Pope as God's vicegerent. Italian patriots with 
an ideal of unity even for Italy itself could see no hope of 
obtaining it save through the empire, through an emperor 
who in virtue of his office was not German nor Italian, but the 
divinely appointed head of Christendom. The victory of the 
Lombard League brought Italy no step nearer to Italian unity; 
and that fact explains why it was possible for the most 
patriotic Italians to desire the Imperial victory, however con- 
fident we may feel that Frederick's triumph would not have 
meant the attainment of the desired ideal. 

Frederick's defeat did, on the other hand, mean not only the 
liberation of the .Italian cities from a German The Papal 
master, but the triumph of the papacy which Triumph. 
was won by Alexander in., and was wielded with tremendous 
effect by his mighty successor Innocent in. 

Frederick failed in Italy, but in Germany his rule was 
extremely successful. He multiplied the free cities ; the 
cities, that is, which recognised the Imperial authority, but 
governed themselves without being subject to the Frederick in 
control of great feudal lords. He mastered the Germany, 
nobles, including Henry the Lion of Saxony, who behaved 
virtually as an independent monarch, and he strengthened the 
secondary orders of the nobility and the freemen. He died, 
as we have seen, when marching on the third crusade, and 
became one of the heroes of the German people ; so that 
legend declared that he was not dead, but lay only in an 
enchanted sleep, from which he should one day arise to 
rescue Germany in the hour of her utmost need. 

Frederick's successor was his son Henry vi., who acquired 
for himself the Norman kingdom of Sicily in right of his wife. 
Henry died leaving an infant son, afterwards 3. After 
Frederick 11., whose claims were at first set aside, Barbarossa. 
and the boy was brought up not in the least as a German but 
as a Sicilian. 

The great Pope Innocent in. ruled during the years between 
the death of the Emperor Henry and the recovery of the 
Imperial Crown by Frederick 11. So powerful was he that he 
could assert his authority to depose kings, and require them to 



i 9 2 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

receive their crown at his hand. Monarchs who in this way 
submitted themselves to him included the kings of Portugal, 
Innocent III, Aragon, and Poland, and king John of Eng. 
1198. land. Throughout the thirteenth century the 

Church was able to exercise a greater political control than at 
any other period of its history. Indirectly, also, its influence 
was greatly increased by the establishment of the orders 'of 
Mendicant Friars, the Franciscans and Dominicans, who, for a 
time at least, lived up to the principles of their founders, 
preaching and practising a higher morality than the clergy had 
taught by precept or example during the past. 

When Frederick n. wrested the Imperial Crown from the 
Saxon claimant Otto, the strife with the papacy was renewed. 
Frederick II. The popes claimed that the Norman kingdom of 
1215-1250. Sicily was held as a papal fief. Frederick, known 
in his own day as the ' wonder of the world,' the most brilliantly 
accomplished prince who ever occupied a throne, was a man 
living in an age wholly unsuited to him. His ideas were those 
which did not become prevalent till centuries after his death. 
To the men of his own day he seemed no better than an 
infidel. We have seen how his crusading efforts only intensified 
the breach between him and Pope Gregory ix. He returned 
from the east to carry on the contest almost immediately after- 
wards with Gregory and his successor Innocent iv. Gregory 
even went so far as to proclaim a crusade against him. Italy 
was divided between the parties now known as the Guelfs 
and Ghibellines, equivalent to Papalists and Imperialists. 
There were Guelf cities and Ghibelline cities, and in most of 
them a Guelf faction and a Ghibelline faction. 

Frederick's son Conrad succeeded him in Sicily, and as 
German king, but never received the Imperial Crown; and 
End of the w ^ tn him, in fact, ended the line of the Hohen- 
Hohenstaufen. staufen. His half-brother Manfred endeavoured 
to maintain grip of Sicily and Southern Italy in the name of his 
nephew Conrad, the actual heir, who is generally known as 
Conradin. But Manfred was overthrown and slain at the great 
battle of Benevento. A last effort was made by the gallant 
young Conradin ; but he, too, was crushed, taken prisoner in 



THE WEST IN THE CRUSADING ERA 193 

a great battle, and executed as a rebel against the lawful King 
of Sicily. 

This 'lawful King' was Charles of Anjou. It will not be 
forgotten that in the eleventh century the Norman Robert 
Guiscard and his kinsmen had conquered, and Charles of 
then received as fiefs from the pope, Southern Anjou. 
Italy and Sicily ; and that these dominions were combined in 
the Norman kingdom of the two Sicilies, that is, Sicily itself 
and the kingdom of Naples. This was the dominion which 
the emperor Henry vi. had added to his realms by marrying 
the heiress of the last Norman king. After the death of 
Conrad, the son of Frederick 11., when his illegitimate brother 
Manfred held the Sicilian kingdom professedly on behalf of 
Conradin, the pope, Urban iv,, who was a Frenchman, bestowed 
the crown, as being in the papal gift, on Charles, Count of 
Anjou and of Provence, the brother of King Louis ix. Hence 
it was Charles of Anjou who overthrew both Manfred and 
Conradin. The supremacy of the Swabian House of Hohen- 
staufen disappeared both in Italy and in Germany at the 
moment when the last crusade was starting. 

Had either Manfred or Conradin proved successful, the 
fortunes of the house might have been restored. In Italy its 
power had at least survived as long as Manfred The German 
lived. But in Germany there was something like Interregnum. 
chaos from the time of Conrad's death. It had now become 
the established right of seven German princes to elect the 
German king. All through the thirteenth century the German 
king had been so much occupied with Italy that he had 
ceased to exercise effective control in Germany. The seven 
electors had no desire to revive the Imperial power. Instead 
of choosing a German, half of them elected Richard of Corn- 
wall, brother of Henry in., King of England, and the other 
half chose Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile, who showed his 
wisdom by stopping at home, while Richard of Cornwall was 
absolutely powerless. Consequently, there was no controlling 
force in Germany where every man did that which was right in 
his own eyes according to his powers. At last the electors 
realised that some degree of efficiency was needed in a head of 

N 



i 9 4 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

the whole of the state, and Rudolf of Hapsburg was chosen 
German king, though he was by no means possessed, in his 
Rudolf of own territorial dominion, of the wealth and resources 
Hapsburg. on which the Saxon, Franconian, or Swabian 
emperors had been able to rely. We have reached, in short, 
a point at which Italy ceases to be bound up with the German 
Empire; and the emperor, when any one does receive the 
Imperial Crown, no longer has that semblance of universal 
authority which had hitherto attached to his person. 

The name of Alfonso the Wise of Castile, and the fact that 
he was chosen by some of the electoral princes to be emperor, 
4. The pro- 1S significant of the changes which had been taking 
gress of Spain, place in Spain since the fall of the kaliphate of 
Cordova. From the northern strip of territory, washed by 
the waters of the Bay of Biscay, the kingdom of Castile, 
having absorbed that of Leon, pushed southward until towards 
the close of the eleventh century it had driven the Moors 
beyond the Tagus. The career of conquest, however, was 
checked by the arrival of a fresh Moorish immigration, and 
Spain was turned into a sort of crusading area, where men 
might go to fight the Moslem instead of transplanting them- 
selves to Syria. The achievements of the Cid Campeador 
belong partly to the regions of romance; nevertheless, they 
have a solid historical basis. Different and antagonistic 
Moorish dynasties succeeded each other, and the tide of success 
ebbed and flowed throughout the twelfth century. For the 
Christians were no more united than the Moors. From the 
French marches and the region lying between the Ebro and 
The Kingdoms the Pyrenees, the kingdom of Aragon was pushing 
of Spain. forward, while the north-eastern corner of Spain, 

including Barcelona, was joined to the county of Provence, the 
southern portion of Burgundy. Navarre, between Aragon and 
Castile, was another small independent kingdom; and the 
Christians who had pushed into Portugal refused to recognise 
Castile's supremacy. Barcelona and the province of Catalonia, 
however, soon became associated with Aragon ; and this 
kingdom developed a considerable naval power, acquired 
possession of the western islands of the Mediterranean, and 



THE WEST IN THE CRUSADING ERA 195 

was later able to extend its sphere of action to Sicily, where 
we shall presently find the royal house of Aragon laying claim 
to the Sicilian Crown. All these Spanish kingdoms, however, 
were in a state of mutual rivalry, which counterbalanced 
the rivalries between the Moorish dynasties. Even Castile 
itself was again separated from Leon. Christian princes allied 
themselves with one or another of the Moorish factions, 
and sometimes even sought Moorish aid against their Christian 
rivals. 

Early in the thirteenth century, however, when Innocent in, 
was pope, Alfonso of Castile, called the Noble, irritated the 
Moors up to such a point that they sank their The Moorg 
quarrels, proclaimed a religious war, and gathered driven back, 
a host of Moslems from Africa to aid them. In 1212# 
the face of the tremendous danger, the Christian princes united, 
and a great defeat was inflicted on the Moors at the decisive 
battle of Navas de Tolosa. The Moorish power was driven 
back into the kingdom of Granada. Castile and Leon were 
presently united again permanently. The only real rival to 
Castilian supremacy in the peninsula was Aragon, though 
Portugal had securely established her own independence, and 
was establishing her maritime reputation on the west. 

While the German emperors were waging their long struggle 
with the popes, and seeking to maintain in Italy a supremacy 
which the antagonism between Germans and 5. The French 
Italians made impossible, France and England Monarchy, 
were both being consolidated into powerful kingdoms. The 
process, however, was following different lines in the different 
countries. From the time when Hugh Capet, as premier 
noble of France, secured the throne for his own family, it 
had been the business of the king to remain the premier noble, 
and to make himself something more. At the beginning of 
the twelfth century, he was hardly so much. His great 
feudatories of Normandy, of Anjou, of Aquitaine, of Toulouse, 
each of them ruled over territory as great as the royal 
domain. 

The policy of the French king, which was followed systemati- 
cally from the early part of the twelfth century, was that of 



196 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

adding to the royal estate lands previously held by vassals, 
either by way of forfeiture, or occasionally by marriage. Thus 
Louis vi. penalised misconduct on the part of sundry of his 
vassals by claiming the right of forfeiture under feudal law. 
He attempted a still more effective stroke by marrying his son 
Tne Angevin t0 Eleanor, the heiress of Aquitaine, a district 
Dominion, composed of sundry duchies and counties, cover- 
1160 ' ing a quarter of France. Unluckily for the Crown, 

Aquitaine was, after all, not converted into Crown territory, 
because Louis vn. and his queen quarrelled so seriously that 
they were divorced. It happened at this moment that the 
north-western quarter of France was practically all in the hands 
of one great feudatory. This was Henry of Anjou, who held 
sundry territories through his father, the Count of Anjou, and 
others through his mother, the heiress of Normandy, through 
whom he also claimed the English throne. When Louis 
divorced Eleanor, Henry seized his opportunity and married 
her, so that roughly the two western quarters of France, and 
in fact something more, were united under the Angevin 
dominion. Henry was Louis's vassal in respect of all these 
territories, but the vassal was quite as strong as the king. 
We may compare the position in Germany at much the same 
date, when Henry the Lion of Saxony held a dominion which 
could challenge the power of the emperor ; though in this case 
the sovereign proved himself more powerful than the vassal. 
Henry of Anjou, however, was also king, and a very powerful 
king, of England, and would certainly have proved himself 
altogether too strong for the King of France, if his own sons 
had not risen up against him. Henry was succeeded by his 
son Richard Coeur de Lion, and Louis by one of the ablest 
Philip an ^ most unscrupulous of all the French kings, 

Augustus, Philip Augustus, or Philip n. It was Philip's 
1180- great object to break the power of Richard by 

fair means or foul. Both the princes went on the third crusade, 
but Philip found excuse to return home, while Richard remained 
in Palestine. Fortune favoured him still further, when Richard 
was captured on his way home by his enemy, the Duke of 
Austria, and was held a prisoner for some time. Philip 



THE WEST IN THE CRUSADING ERA 197 

improved his opportunity by fostering the disloyalty of Richard's 

vassals in France, and of his brother John in England. When 

Richard was at last released, he paid only a flying visit to 

England, and returned to his continental dominions, bent on 

organising a great combination for the destruction of Philip ; 

but his career was cut short by a mortal wound received when 

he was on an expedition to chastise a recalcitrant vassal 

Richard's brother John succeeded to the Crown of England, 

by election, in accordance with English practice ; but the heir 

to his French dominions, by feudal law, was his „,_.,. 

' J ' Philip of 

nephew, Arthur of Brittany, the son of an elder France 

brother. Philip supported the boy's claims. John and Jonn 

got Arthur into his own hands, and the boy 

disappeared. John became the undisputed heir, but Philip 

summoned him to answer for the death of Arthur. John 

declined to obey, and Philip claimed the forfeiture of his 

domains. As a matter of course there was a war, in w T hich 

Philip was completely successful. In the notable 

battle of Bouvines, he inflicted a total defeat upon 

John and his ally, Otto, the German emperor, who very shortly 

afterwards was displaced by Frederick 11. The final result of 

the war was to leave John in possession of little more than 

Guienne in the south-west of France. The King of England 

was still a French noble, but the King of France had 

enormously increased the Crown domains, and there was 

now no magnate in the kingdom who could challenge his 

supremacy. 

Toulouse also was practically secured for the Crown in the same 
reign. There had arisen in that part of France a heretical sect 
called the Albigenses. Pope Innocent in. authorised The Albi- 
a crusade against them, which was conducted with genses. 
extreme cruelty. Count Raimond of Toulouse endeavoured to 
extend to them some slight protection ; consequently, the count 
was deprived of most of his possessions, which were transformed 
into a papal fief, and a few years later w r ere transferred by 
their holder to the French king. 

Further advance was made in increasing the power of the 
French king under Louis ix. } called St Louis, whom we have 



198 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

met in the role of a crusader. The virtues of Louis achieved, 
in their own way, almost as much as the craft of Philip n. 
Louis acquired the position of a sort of universal 
arbitrator, because all men knew that his awards 
would be dictated, not by policy, but wholly by principle. He 
may fairly be regarded as the ideal of a Christian king, and the 
undoubted trust and confidence which he inspired gave the 
Crown an enormous prestige, which may be compared with that 
won by our own King Alfred nearly four centuries before. Thus, 
by the close of the crusading era, France had at last attained 
the possession of a strong central government in the control of 
the king. 

Hitherto we have said little about England, which remained 
almost outside the stream of European history until the Norman 
, Conquest, and even after that time only appeared 

on the continental stage as an appanage of the 
greatest feudatory of the French Crown. But England was 
now about to intervene as an independent state, and a brief 
sketch of the course of her development becomes necessary. 
A Retrospec- Angles and Saxons in the course of the fifth and 
tive Sketch. sixth centuries had conquered all but the hilly 
regions of the west, from the Forth to the English Channel ; 
Angles pushing in from the east coast, Saxons from the south 
and south-east. The groups of conquerors set up separate 
kingdoms among which one or another was generally recognised 
as holding a vague supremacy, which was always liable to be 
wrested from it. In all, the general principles of government 
prevailed, which we have observed as characteristic of the 
Teutons. At the beginning of the ninth century the supremacy 
passed from the midland kingdom of Mercia to the southern 
kingdom of Wessex. But during the same century the 
Danes poured in, in increasing numbers, first as marauders, and 
then as conquerors. 

The Danish conquest was stayed by King Alfred of Wessex, 
who, however, found it politic to allow them to remain in 
Alfred and his partial occupation of the north-east half of Eng- 
Successors. land, under the supremacy of the King of Wessex 
as king of all England. Alfred's successors were able to 



THE WEST IN THE CRUSADING ERA 199 

establish a real control over this great district which was 
known as the Danelagh. On the other hand, „ „ , 

„ . . r ^ r, it SCOtlaM. 

the Celtic kings of the western Scots succeeded 

in extending their own supremacy over the lands between the 

Forth and the Tweed. 

But at the beginning of the eleventh century the flagrant misrule 
of Ethelred the Redeless enabled the King of Denmark to make 
common cause with the Danes of the Danelagh, and England in 
compel the English to acknowledge his sovereignty, the Eleventh 
Canute the Great became King of England and Century « 
Denmark ; and there was a likelihood that a great Scandinavian 
dominion would be established, of which England would form a 
part. But there was no second Canute to follow the first ; the 
dominion broke up, and the English recalled a king of the line 
of Alfred, Edward the Confessor, who had been brought up 
in exile at the Norman court. Canute, in pursuance of his 
Imperial schemes, had divided England into great provinces, 
which in some degree corresponded to the great feudal domains 
in France and Germany ; and again it seemed probable that 
the Crown would be dominated by great feudatories. The 
English Crown had always gone by election, though, except 
in the case of the Danish kings, the election had been 
limited in practice to the royal family of Wessex and com- 
monly to the eldest son ; but, on the death of Edward the 
Confessor, the election fell on the greatest of the earls, Harold. 

William, Duke of Normandy, however, claimed that both 
Edward and Harold had promised the succession to him. He 
invaded England, overthrew Harold at the battle Tlle Gorman 
of Hastings, and caused himself to be elected King Conquest, 
of England. King Harald of Norway had struck 1066, 
his own stroke for the Crown and lost, at the battle of Stamford 
Bridge, a few days before Hastings. Sweyn, King of Denmark, 
would have challenged William had the English been ready to 
support him ; but though there was an English revolt, its 
figurehead was Edgar the Atheling, the young prince of the 
house of Wessex. Sweyn drew back, and William used the 
revolt as an excuse for forfeiting most of the land of England, 
and bestowing it on his Norman followers. 



2oo THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

But William created no great fiefs. Instead, he created a 
number of small earldoms, none of them sufficiently large to 
The Norman De a source °f danger ; and the land was further 
Kings, 1066- divided up among an immense number of small 
1135, barons or tenants-in-chief, who held it directly 

from the Crown, and owed allegiance to no overlord, except 
the king. Also, he maintained to the full the overlord's right 
of controlling the marriages of vassals, so that he prevented great 
estates from being accumulated by marriages in the hands of 
single families. Hence William and his two sons were always able 
to crush any attempts at defiance on the part of nobles. The 
Normans individually exercised for long a cruel oppression over 
the English ; but, even if they attempted to combine against the 
Crown, the Crown could call the English to its aid against them. 

But after the Conqueror's two sons, their incompetent nephew 
Stephen of Blois, the son of William's daughter Adela, got himself 
elected king. Then came a frightful period of anarchy. His 
claim to the Crown was challenged by Matilda or Maud, the 
daughter of the last king Henry I. Every man fought with his 
neighbour, and there was no government at all, till the whole 
country was thirsting for a restoration of order. 

The contest for the Crown was settled by an agreement that 

Matilda's son Henry should succeed on the death of Stephen, 

when he ascended the throne as Henry 11., the first 
The Planta- , . _, TTT . . .. . .. 

genets: of the Plantagenets. We have already observed 

Henry II., how the history of France was affected during the 

next hundred years by its relations with its Angevin 

vassals, who were also kings of England. In France Henry was 

the most dangerous of the vassals of the king ; in England it 

was his business to make the Crown supreme, and to reorganise 

the government which had gone so hopelessly to pieces under 

Stephen. He made it his object not only to secure to the Crown 

such a supremacy as it had enjoyed under the Conqueror's sons ; 

he also established the system under which law was enforced and 

justice generally prevailed. He also made a great effort to make 

the Church subject to the ordinary law of the realm, but he was 

finally defeated in the contest with Becket, who was zealously 

supported by Pope Alexander in. 



THE WEST IN THE CRUSADING ERA 201 

When the strong hand of the great king was removed, his 
successor Richard left the kingdom almost entirely in the hands 
of regents. Where a king was able, vigorous, and just, the 
concentration of power in his hands produced good government. 
King John showed how bad government could be under the 
king who played the tyrant. The effect of his rule was to 
combine the clergy, barons and commons in com- Magna Carta, 
pelling him to pledge himself to maintain instead of 1215 - 
breaking the laws of the land, as set forth in the Great Charter 
which he was forced to seal at Runnymede. Kings after that 
might attempt to ride roughshod over the Charter, but when they 
did so their opponents could make a point of claiming that the 
law was higher than the king, and that they stood for law. 
There lay the fundamental principle of English liberty. 

However strong the kings of England had been hitherto, they 
had always acted at least nominally in concert with the Great 
Council of the nation. In practice, the Great „ ,. 
Council had been an assembly of magnates known 
in Saxon times as the Witan. Since the Conquest nearly all the 
magnates were Normans, but the Council was not supposed to 
have changed its character. It is possible that in theory any 
freeman was allowed to attend it. It was practically established 
by the Charter that the king could not alter the laws of the land, 
or make demands for money, or imprison any one without trial, 
without the assent of the Great Council. John's successor, 
Henry in., during a reign of more than fifty years, repeatedly set 
the Charter at defiance. The barons combined to resist him, 
and to maintain their rights under the Charter. Simon de 
Under the leadership of Simon de Montfort they Montfort. 
even compelled him to submit himself to the control of a 
committee of barons. However much individual barons may 
have been guided by purely personal interest, they were obliged 
to act as champions of the law and of public welfare, and 
Montfort himself was no less careful of the rights of the lesser 
barons and the common folk than of those of the greater barons. 
Although Montfort fell finally, the contest destroyed the power 
of the king to act arbitrarily, and established the right of the 
Council, which now began to be called Parliament, to be consulted. 



202 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

The most striking fact however was the new character which was 
given to parliament by the creation or development of representa- 
Representa- tion. The great barons in their own interests would 
tion, 1265. naturally attend the Council; not so the smaller 
barons, minor land-holders and townsmen. The innovation which 
was introduced simply as a matter of convenience, was the 
summoning of elected representatives, first from the shires, and 
then from the boroughs, also by Simon de Montfort. In this 
way a body of [men was regularly assembled, who could combine 
to express the opinion of the free citizens and land-holders, and 
that opinion could make itself effectively felt. 

We have also to note that while the kingdom of Scotland 
remained independent, though her king still paid homage to the 
Ireland king of England for lands held in England as the 

kings of England did homage to the kings of France 
for lands held in France, Ireland had become a part of the 
English king's dominion in the reign of Henry n. Ireland itself 
was not a kingdom, but was composed of a number of very 
loosely related principalities. Partly by conquest and partly 
by marriages, sundry Norman barons were permitted to take 
possession of great estates in Ireland for which King Henry 
required them to do him homage ; and homage was also exacted 
from the native Irish chiefs. Henry called himself Lord of 
Ireland instead of king, as authority to take possession was 
supposed to have been granted to him by the pope, Hadrian iv. 

Lastly, the loss of three-fourths of the French possessions by 
King John turned what was left into provinces held by the King 
Consolida- °f England in a foreign country. Hitherto the 
tion of English kingdom had been on the whole of less 

ng an . consequence to the Norman and Angevin kings than 

their French dominions, and half the barons of England had also 
been barons of Normandy. Now the barons of England were- 
Englishmen ; and Henry m.'s successor, Edward I., the bearer of 
a purely English name, had to consolidate the power of England, 
not of Anjou, as a nation of the first rank. The last of the 
crusaders was the first of the real English kings. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES : 
GERMANY, ITALY, AND THE PAPACY 

With the close of the crusading period, Western Europe with 
the exception of Venice almost gave up its interest in the east. 
The nations of the west were engaged in giving i„ survey of 
themselves a more and more definite shape, during tlie period, 
the two hundred years which are now coming under our review. 
France and England became gradually engaged in a long 
struggle, during which it seemed possible at two separate periods — 
one in the fourteenth and one in the fifteenth century — that the 
King of England might become the Lord of France. On each 
occasion France recovered herself and expelled the £ n gi an( j > 
English. The attempts of the English kings to Scotland, 
subjugate Scotland failed ; Scotland not only main- and France - 
tained her independence, though it was momentarily torn from 
her by Edward I., but continued throughout the whole period a 
most valuable ally to France, and a thorn in the side of England. 
In England popular liberties were made secure, and the power 
and prosperity of the nation increased steadily in spite of the 
civil broils which alternated with her foreign wars. France, in 
spite of humiliations in the course of the English war, extended 
her dominions, absorbed the greater part of the old Burgundian 
kingdom, and finally cleared herself of the English altogether. 
At the conclusion of the struggle the Crown had achieved a 
supremacy heretofore threatened, and sometimes rent from it 
altogether, by the power of the great nobles. In 
Germany, on the other hand, the power of the 
separate princes increased at the expense of that of the German 

203 



2o 4 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

kings, who for the most part gave up the attempt to revive the 
old idea of the supreme empire, and only occasionally assumed 
the Imperial title. Their authority in Italy almost disappeared. 
But while the power of the German princes grew, so also did 
that of the free cities who owned no lord but the emperor. The 
commercial energy of these cities, united in leagues for the main- 
tenance of interests common to all, made them immensely 
wealthy, and thereby rendered them extremely valuable as 
allies. 

In Italy the city states which we have there seen developing 
followed a course not unlike that of the Greek city states of old. 
Each of the great cities became the mistress of a 
group of minor cities. Venice stands as typical of 
government under a close oligarchy ; Florence was an advanced 
democracy. In other cases the republican forms were displaced 
by monarchy, hereditary in one great family; such as the Visconti, 
who had the title of Dukes of Milan. Rome itself after a 
republican period finally passed under the control of the popes. 
The kingdoms of Sicily and Naples were periodically a battle- 
ground, where rival dynasties strove to assert their respective 
claims. In Spain the chief powers were the Moorish kingdom 
of Granada in the south and the Christian kingdoms of Portugal, 
„ . Castile, and Araeron. The Crowns of the two latter 

kingdoms were united at the close of our period by 
the marriage of Isabella, Queen of Castile, with Ferdinand, King 
of Aragon, who together achieved the conquest of Granada. 
This, however, belongs to our next period. 

We have seen the papacy at the height of its power. We 
shall now see it cast down and brought into the grip not of the 
The German emperor, but of the French king, and then 

Papacy. ren t between rival popes. The first period is 

known as that of the Babylonish captivity at Avignon, which 
took the place of Rome as the papal residence. The second 
period is that of the Great Schism, during which Protestantism 
had its birth in the teaching of John Wycliffe, the Englishman, 
and John Huss, the Bohemian. The schism was brought to a 
close, and the papacy restored to something of its former 
splendour, after the Council of Constance in 141 5. 



THE CLOSE : MIDDLE EUROPE 205 

But in Italy, the land of city states, there had been a great 
intellectual revival comparable to the intellectual activity of the 
Greek city states. There had taken place that The 
new birth of art and letters which is called the Renaissance. 
Renaissance. From Italy the intellectual movement spread. 
In every field of thought men began to challenge the dictation 
of the time-honoured authorities which had hitherto claimed to 
speak with the voice of inspiration. The way was prepared for 
challenging the spiritual as well as the temporal authority of 
the papacy ; and the channels through which new doctrines 
could be spread, and carried to all ranks, were multiplied by the 
invention of the printing-press. 

A further impulse was given to this intellectual movement by 
the fall of Constantinople, the final annihilation of the Greek 
Empire. The hostility of Greeks and Latins had Fall of Con _ 
prevented the Greeks from bestowing and the stantinople, 
Latins from receiving much that Byzantium had 1453, 
preserved when the hordes of barbarians overran the west. 
Now the Greeks fled before the Turks, and they found the 
west already sufficiently enlightened to welcome all the know- 
ledge they could bring. 

During the time of the crusades, Islam had ceased to be a 
grave menace to Christianity. The Christians had not con- 
quered ; they had not even recovered the old Roman dominion 
in Asia, though they had maintained a precarious footing in 
the west of Syria, and won back some of Asia Minor from the 
Seljuks. But the crusades had stopped the westward advance 
of Mohammedanism ; and even when the Latin kingdom of 
Jerusalem had become merely the shadow of a name, the 
divided Mohammedan powers were not in a position to resume 
aggression, their disruption having just been intensified by the 
Mongol invasion. But almost at this same moment The ottoman 
a more dangerous Turkish race, known to us as Turks, 
the Ottomans, from one of their first chiefs, Othman or Osman, 
was taking the place of the Seljuks. The Turks had made 
entry into the Ottoman Empire sometimes from the east of 
the Caspian Sea through Persia, sometimes between the 
Caspian and the Black Sea through Armenia. The Ottomans 



2 o6 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

came through Armenia, and were welcomed by the Seljuks as a 
reinforcement. But in fact they organised a new power, before 
which the Seljuks disappeared. At last they broke into Europe, 
surging into the feebly held dominions of what was still the 
Greek Empire, which was left by the west to its fate; and 
finally, they stormed and captured the capital after a heroic 
defence. The crescent, on the verge of being ejected from 
Western Europe, established itself in the east, and made Europe 
itself the battle-ground between Christianity and aggressive 
Mohammedanism. 

At the time of the death of Louis ix., the Royal house of 
France was the greatest dynastic power in Europe. France 
herself was strong and Louis left the Crown in France particularly 
strong. His brother Charles was Count not only of Anjou, but 
also of Provence, which was an independent state, and was now 
king of the two Sicilies. It was perhaps a fear that the house 
of Capet might seek for its own further aggrandisement in the 
2 The Em- divisions of Germany which impelled Gregory x. 
pire: Rudolf, to urge upon the German electors the duty of 
choosing a German king. The electors chose Rudolf of 
Hapsburg, partly from fear of the aggressive designs of Ottokar 
of Bohemia, the strongest of the princes whose domains were 
included in the area of the empire, though his subjects were 
chiefly Slavonic, not German. Rudolf found reason for forcing 
war upon Ottokar, whom he succeeded in crushing, and whose 
territories of Austria and Carinthia he proceeded to appropriate. 
After a brief interval Rudolf's son Albert was elected. But 
after Albert, though there were Hapsburg claimants to the 
Imperial dignity, none reigned undisputed till more than a 
hundred years later. On Albert's death, Charles of Valois, 
brother of the French King Philip the Fair, became a candidate 
for the empire. 

The choice, however, fell upon Henry of Luxemburg. In 
Italy the strife of the parties who called themselves Guelfs 
Henry VII., an( ^ Ghibellines encouraged Henry to revive the 
1307. ideal of the empire. He entered Italy intending 

to adopt the role not of a partisan but of the authoritative 
mediator between parties. But his success would have been 



THE CLOSE ; MIDDLE EUROPE 207 

exceedingly distasteful both to France itself and to Charles of 
Sicily. A severe struggle was impending when Henry died 
suddenly. With him died his Imperial scheme. A contest for 
the Imperial Crown followed between Frederick of Austria and 
Lewis of Bavaria. In this contest the Bavarian was successful. 
It was during his rule that the German Diet Lewis of 
definitely asserted the claim that the sole authority Bavaria, 1322. 
in appointing a German king lay in the electors of the empire, 
whose choice carried with it the title to the Imperial Crown. 
The attitude of Lewis and the popes was mutually hostile. 
Hostile to Lewis also was the house of Luxemburg, which had 
now acquired the kingdom of Bohemia by marriage. Con- 
sequently, when Charles of Bohemia secured his own election in 
place of Lewis, who was deposed, he appeared almost as the 
vassal of the pope. He won the election, and thus became 
Charles iv. 

Charles did not secure his position without some trouble and 
many concessions, which further increased the power of the 
German princes as against the emperor. These Charles IV., 
concessions were embodied in the charter known 134 7. 
as the Golden Bull. Charles was endeavouring to compensate 
himself and his family for anything they might have lost by the 
extension of their own dominions. He had betrothed his son 
Wenzel or Wenceslaus to a Hungarian princess, and not without 
a good deal of difficulty procured his election as King of the 
Romans in accordance with the custom of the earlier emperors. 
Not Wenzel, but Wenzel's brother Sigismund got possession of 
the kingdom of Hungary, by marrying the queen ; 
and it was Sigismund's intention ultimately to 
win for himself the Imperial position in place of his brother. 
Wenzel was an incompetent person, who made no attempt 
to act up to the responsibility of his position. He was 
deposed in a meeting of some of the electors, and another 
German king was named in his place. In fact, 

r ^ • u 1400. 

the state of Germany was again becoming 

chaotic, almost as chaotic as the affairs of the papacy, in 

which the Great Schism was now at its most extravagant 

stage. 



208 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

When Wenzel's rival, Rupert of the Palatinate, died, Sigis- 
mund got himself elected German king, though Wenzel had 
Sigismund, never recognised his own deposition. It is of 
I* 11 * interest to note that Brandenburg was now be- 

stowed by Sigismund on Frederick of Hohenzollern, who thus 
became the first Elector belonging to the house which has 
given its kings to Prussia and its present emperor to Germany. 
Sigismund ultimately was actually crowned emperor. When he 
died, in 1437, Albert 11. of the house of Hapsburg or Austria 

was elected ; and from that time forward the 
The } 

Hapsburg Imperial Crown was invariably bestowed on some 

Dynasty, member of that house until the dynasty of Haps- 

burg was converted into the dynasty of Lorraine 
by the marriage of its heiress, Maria Theresa, to Francis of 
Lorraine in the eighteenth century. The Emperor Frederick in., 
who succeeded Albert 11., was the last of the emperors who 
comes within our present period, and was also the last who was 
actually crowned at Rome. 

The reign of Sigismund was so closely connected with the 
ecclesiastical questions of the day, that we must now trace the 
3. The fortunes of the papacy during the hundred and 

Papacy. fifty years preceding his election as German king. 

We saw that Pope Gregory x. was largely instrumental in the 
election of Rudolf of Hapsburg as German king. Gregory was 
v himself one of the few popes who was more anxious 
for the welfare of Christendom than for the 
aggrandisement of the papacy, and preferred to see order in 
Germany even at the risk of reviving rivalry between pope and 
emperor. For a moment it even seemed that he would succeed 
in reconciling the Greek and the Latin churches, for he still 
dreamed of a united Christendom and the recovery of the Holy 
Land. But his reign was all too brief. After an interval, 
in an unusual ^access of religious sentiment, the cardinals 
chose, to occupy the chair of St. Peter, a hermit who was 
credited with exceptional holiness. Unfortunately, he also 
proved himself exceptionally incompetent, and was deposed 
by the cardinals, who replaced him by the pope known as 
Boniface vm. 



THE CLOSE : MIDDLE EUROPE 209 

Boniface was a man of great determination, a consummate 
intriguer, and inordinately ambitious. He carried the papal 
pretensions so far that he roused both Philip the Boniface VIII, 
Fair of France and Edward 1. of England to defy 1294-1303. 
his authority ; and the kings were stoutly supported at least 
by their lay subjects in their attitude. It had become a 
question of the purse, when the pope forbade the secular 
authorities to tax the clergy in their own realms without his 
permission. The laity were fully determined that the Church 
should bear at least its fair share of the burdens of the state. 
The English king practically ignored the pope, and compelled 
the clergy to pay, by placing them outside the protection of the 
civil law so long as they were recalcitrant. The French king 
went further, and summoned the council called the States 
General, which solemnly declared that France was independent 
of the pope. Boniface replied by a bull or papal injunction, 
declaring the entire subjection of all temporal authorities to the 
pope. He deposed the French clergy who supported the king ; 
and he was on the verge of deposing the king himself when he 
was attacked in his own palace, and so roughly handled that he 
died very shortly afterwards. 

After a brief interval the French procured the election of a 
Frenchman to the papal throne. Clement v., instead of going 
to Rome, established himself at Avignon in The Popes at 
Provence, which was not actually French territory, Avignon, 
but belonged to the King of Naples, the Angevin 1305-1377. 
monarch, who was himself a member of the Capet family. 
For some seventy years the popes remained at Avignon in 
inevitable subserviency to the French king. The mere fact 
was sufficient to shake the popular belief in the pope's authority, 
and the prestige which attached to him as the successor of 
St. Peter — according to tradition the first bishop of Rome. In 
the popular mind, in fact, the city of Rome and the spiritual 
primacy of Christendom were indissolubly associated. It was 
all the easier for Lewis of Bavaria and the German Diet to claim 
completely to disregard papal intervention in the German 
elections when the right of intervention was asserted not from 
Rome but from Avignon. Charles iv. was friendly to the 

o 



2io THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

Avignon papacy for political reasons ; he came forward to 
displace Lewis, who was at odds with Pope Clement. Hence 
Weakness of he began with an air of submission to the papal 
the Papacy. claims. But he soon found that policy required 
him to acknowledge the position of the seven electors, and 
had no qualms about ignoring the papal authority. At the 
same time the Franciscans were in a state of semi-revolt 
against the Avignon papacy. Some of the most remark- 
able men of the time, such as the great scholar William of 
Occam, belonged to the Franciscan Order, whose members 
were generally distinguished by the practice of a self-denial, 
which won them a general respect, and intensified the ordinary 
layman's objection to the luxury prevalent among the higher 
clergy. Occam himself was an Englishman; and another 
Englishman, John Wycliffe, was to do still more towards under- 
The mining the papal pretensions. The notable point 

Reformers: is that hitherto the various heresies, such as that 
Wycliffe. Q f ^q Albigenses, which discarded those doctrines 

on which the papacy and the clergy most relied as means to 
extending or maintaining their own influence, had been for the 
most part confined to the unlearned. Now it was among the 
most learned and most cultivated of the clergy that a reforming 
spirit was becoming prominent, a reforming spirit which 
attacked the authority of the Church itself by challenging 
current ecclesiastical doctrines. 

We must examine matters, however, a little more closely to 
prevent misapprehension. The great Pope Hildebrand or 
Gregory vn. and his predecessor Gregory the Great may be 
Contrastwith taken as types of heads of the Church who were 
the Past. also themselves reformers. They combined a 

fervent zeal for moral improvement with a fervent belief in 
their own divine authority, and their moral earnestness made 
their divine authority credible. The Mendicant Orders at the 
time of their institution under Innocent in., and for a long 
time after, were zealous moral reformers; but the popes, even 
though they were primarily engaged in magnifying their own 
office, were still men of high character, who maintained the 
Church's moral tone. The papacy still upheld the standard of 



THE CLOSE: MIDDLE EUROPE 211 

the higher life. Men of learning and character could still feel 
that public morality would suffer if the authority of the Church 
were diminished. Such heresies as those of the Albigenses 
appeared anarchical. But the arrogance of Boniface viii., and 
the humiliation of his successors, destroyed that moral vigour of 
the papacy ; and the new reformers, in search of a moral influ- 
ence to take its place, were beginning in fact to appeal to scrip- 
ture and human reason instead of to the authority of the Church. 

If that authority was weakened by the captivity of Avignon, it 
sank still lower at the end of the fourteenth century. A pope 
was at last elected by the party in the Church The Great 
which was in revolt against French domination. Schism, 1378. 
The pope returned to Rome. The revolt was followed by the 
Great Schism, when the French cardinals elected a pope of their 
own in opposition to the Italian pope. Western Christendom 
adhered to one pope or the other for political reasons. The 
popes excommunicated each other, and all the adherents of the 
opposite party ; the authority of both popes sank to the lowest 
point, and Christendom realised that the scandal must be 
brought to an end. The remedy was found in summoning a 
General Council of the Church at Pisa, on the council of 
principle that a General Council was the last and Pisa > 1409 - 
highest authority to which the Church could appeal. The 
Council of Pisa deposed both the reigning popes and elected 
another to take their place, but neither of the deposed popes 
would retire ; so that now there were three popes, each of them 
pretending to be representative of St. Peter. Five years after 
the Council of Pisa, a fresh General Council was summoned at 
Constance; all the three popes were deposed or council of 
retired, and Martin v. was elected in 141 7. This Constance, 
Council was summoned primarily by the authority 1414, 
of Sigismund as emperor and temporal head of Christendom. 

The Great Schism was brought to an end, and there was once 
more a single pope who was acknowledged on all hands, and 
whose high character began to redeem the papal authority ; 
and the pope also once more ruled as a temporal prince over 
the central province of Italy, which was always supposed to be 
his immediate property. 



212 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

But the long period of humiliation had done its work in 
sowing the seeds of an implacable hostility to the spiritual as 
well as to the temporal authority of the popes. In England the 
disciples of Wycliffe, known as the Lollards, were sternly 
John Huss, suppressed, though Lollardy survived beneath 
1415. the surface. But Wycliffe's doctrines had been 

taken up in Bohemia by the doctors, John Huss and Jerome 
of Prague. Huss was summoned before the Council of 
Constance to answer for his heresy, and was burnt at the 
stake, in spite of the fact that he had come under a safe 
conduct from Sigismund himself. His fate was shared by 
Jerome of Prague. The Council, though wisely determined to 
restore order in the Church, had no idea of admitting any 
reformation of doctrine. 

The new doctrine, however, had taken root, and Bohemia was 
soon in a flame of revolt. The Hussites found a brilliant 
4. Central leader first in John Zisca, and after his death in 
Europe. Procop. Sigismund's efforts to crush them, even 

when extended into a crusade under papal sanction, were of no 
avail, and a devastating war was prolonged over many years. 
The Hussite The Hussites could not be stamped out as the 
Wars. Albigenses had been; and in the long-run they 

were able to obtain terms for themselves, under which they were 
allowed liberty on most of the points for which they had 
fought. 

When Sigismund died he left no son ; his daughter was 
married to Albert of Austria, of the house of Hapsburg. Now 
Sigismund himself had been King of Hungary when he was 
chosen German king, and his brother Wenzel, formerly German 
Bohemia king, was King of Bohemia. Wenzel died before 

and Sigismund, leaving no heirs. The Bohemian 

Hungary. Crown was elective, but like most elective mon- 

archies it usually, though not invariably, passed to the natural 
heir when the king died. Thus Bohemia would naturally pass 
to Sigismund. Before his death he succeeded in procuring the 
recognition of his son-in-law as his successor both in Bohemia 
and in Hungary. The election to the German kingdom also 
fell upon Albert, who thus held in his own hands all the 



THE CLOSE: MIDDLE EUROPE 213 

dominions controlled by the last of the Luxemburg dynasty, 
together with his own Austrian dominions, Albert did not long 
survive, and his actual heir was a son born after his death 
called Ladislaus Posthumus. On the other hand, the electors 
chose as German king Albert's Hapsburg cousin Frederick of 
Carinthia, who was also guardian of the baby Ladislaus. The 
Crowns of the two kingdoms went to the child who remained 
under Frederick's care, while in effect the regencies were after 
a time placed in the hands of the Bohemian noble, George 
Podiebrad, and the great Hungarian warrior, John Hunyadi or 
Hunyadi Janos. When young Ladislaus died at the age of 
eighteen, George was elected King of Bohemia, and the Hun- 
garian nobles chose for their king Matthias Corvinus, the son of 
John Hunyadi. Frederick succeeded to the Austrian dominions. 
It was not till the next century that Bohemia and Hungary 
passed definitely into the hands of the house of Hapsburg. 

In Italy we saw with the close of the crusades and the dis- 
appearance of the house of Hohenstaufen, that Charles of 
Provence and Anjou had become king of the two The two 
Sicilies. In the island of Sicily, however, the rule Sicilies, 
of the French was the rule of aliens and oppressors. Moreover, 
the action of Charles in executing Conradin had roused against 
him a feeling of the most intense hostility. The daughter of 
King Manfred, who was killed at the battle of Benevento, which 
had secured Charles's throne, was married to King Pedro of 
Aragon, to whom the young Conradin had appealed to be his 
avenger. In 1282, there was a sudden uprising of The Sicilian 
the Sicilians against their oppressors; a fearful Vespers, 
massacre of all the French in the island took place, 1282 ' 
Which is known as the Sicilian Vespers, because the signal was 
given by the tolling of the vesper bell. The Sicilians appealed 
to Pedro to come to their aid. He did so, and a long war 
with Charles followed, which ended in the establishment of an 
Aragonese dynasty in Sicily. The Angevin dynasty, however, 
held its own on the mainland, and retained the kingdom of 
Naples or Southern Italy. For the sake of clearness this will be 
referred to as the kingdom of Naples, although its monarchs 
did not surrender the title of Kings of Sicily. At the beginning 



2i 4 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

of the fourteenth century a member of the Angevin house 

became, through marriage, King of Hungary. This Angevin 

dynasty of Hungary lasted until Mary, a daughter of the last 

king of the house, became queen, and the Crown passed to her 

husband Sigismund, whom we have seen as emperor. In the 

fifteenth century the Crown of Naples was secured by another 

branch of the house of Aragon, although the French house of 

Anjou still made attempts to claim it. 

Towards the middle of the fifteenth century the representative 

of the house of Anjou was King Rene of Provence, who called 

himself King of Sicily and of Jerusalem ; whose 
Provence. 

daughter, known as Margaret of Anjou, was wife of 

Henry vi. of England, and whose realm of Provence was desired 
by Charles the Bold of Burgundy, but was in fact absorbed into 
the kingdom of Louis xi. of France. We shall presently find 
the successor of Louis on the French throne taking upon himself 
the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples. 

The kingdom of Naples was the largest single dominion in 
Italy, but the states of the north achieved a more abiding 
. fame. Venice during this period was at the height 

of her glory, and her fleets were the great defence 
of the western world against the maritime power of the Turks. 
She retained her republican government for centuries, and her 
position as a first-class maritime power in the Mediterranean 
long after Spain and Portugal, England and Holland, had be- 
come rivals in the greater ocean beyond the Strait of Gibraltar. 
On the sea the Genoese republic stood second. In art she was 
rivalled and in letters surpassed by the great democratic republic 
of Florence. But the time was coming when a single family, 
Florence and that of the Medici, were to become masters of the 
Milan. Florentine democracy, though without any formal 

appropriation of the supreme power. In the eyes of P^urope 
Milan came to count for more politically than any other Italian 
state except Venice ; first, under the rule of the Visconti, and 
then under the Sforza dynasty founded by a captain of mer- 
cenaries, Francesco Sforza, who married a daughter of one of the 
Visconti. Another Visconti married a French prince, the Duke 
of Orleans, whose grandson afterwards succeeded to the French 



THE CLOSE: MIDDLE EUROPE 215 

throne as Louis xn., and asserted his own claim to the Milanese 
dukedom. 

The history of Northern Italy is in fact the history of several 
small states, each giving a brilliant example of intellectual and 
political development, but also sharply separated by rivalry with 
each other; so that no single state could be formed, no league 
even could be established, powerful enough to save Italy from 
becoming the battle-ground of the great states which were now 
consolidating themselves in Western Europe. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES : 
THE WESTERN AND EASTERN NATIONS 

We have seen how at the close of the thirteenth century Philip 

the Fair of France had a sharp contest with Boniface viii., and 

l. France. now tne Crown won a complete victory over the 

The last papacy. That vigorous and extremely unscrupulous 

monarch also enriched himself by the destruction 

of the order of the Knights Templars, and found another source 

of wealth in the persecution of the Jews. He set about a policy 

of encroachment on the power of the nobles, but did not succeed 

in wresting from Edward I. of England any part of that French 

inheritance which still remained to the English king. After 

him ruled three of his sons in succession, of whom the second 

promulgated a law of immense importance in the history of 

France, declaring that succession to the Crown passed through 

males only. As a matter of fact the succession ever since the 

founding of the dynasty, that is, for more than three hundred 

years, had passed through the male line, not because there was 

any law, but because there had never been any other line which 

could put in a claim. This pronouncement was put forward by 

Philip v., in order to exclude any possible claims on behalf of 

the daughter of his elder brother. But it was not on her behalf 

that the law was challenged a few years later. Philip died child- 

„ . less ; his younger brother Charles iv. died childless : 

The Valois 
Succession, and according to the law the heir to the throne by 

1328. male descent was Philip of Valois, who became 

king as Philip vi. But the three brothers who had reigned 



THE CLOSE: WEST AND EAST 217 

successively had a sister who was mother of the King of England, 
Edward in. ; and the King of England, having other reasons for 
going to war with France, elected to put forward as his pretext 
his own claim through his mother to the Crown of France, as 
giving a better title than that of his cousin of Valois. The 
victory of the Valois in the long struggle with England known 
as the Hundred Years' War established the principle of the male 
succession to the French monarchy. 

The quarrel of England and France illustrates a point in the 
history of the empire. Charles iv. was at one time a candidate 
for the empire against Lewis of Bavaria ; the French and 
Bavarian party were antagonistic to France and English 
friendly with England ; the Luxemburg party were for the 
friendly with France and hostile to England ; and Empire. 
Edward in. in his turn became a candidate for the empire in 
opposition to Charles iv., though his own people compelled him 
to withdraw. 

Among the great fiefs of France was Flanders, which we may 
think of as roughly corresponding to Belgium. The great cities 
of Flanders had defied the count who claimed to be their feudal 
lord ; and some years earlier their sturdy foot- 



soldiers had inflicted at Courtrai a sreat defeat on 



The Flemings. 



the French chivalry, the first striking example in mediaeval 
warfare of a victory of infantry against cavalry. The Flemings 
had a great and valuable trade with England. They wanted the 
support of England in the contest with the count and the French 
king. The Flemish trade was very well worth preserving, and 
Edward 111. was well enough inclined to support the burghers 
and to have their support in a French war, because the policy of 
the French king was directed to weakening his own power in 
his duchy of Guienne. It was the demand of the Flemings that 
he should himself claim the French Crown, and so enable" them 
to profess that in fighting for him they were fighting for their 
lawful sovereign, which probably decided him to assert his title ; 
an exceedingly weak one, since, if inheritance passed through 
the female line at all, the legitimate claimant was the daughter 
of Louis x., not his sister. Still the claim to the Crown was 
made the ostensible pretext for war. 



218 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

The early campaigns were notable for the English capture of 
Calais, following eleven months after the famous battle of Creey 
The Hundred ( x 34 6 )> in wnicn the nu S e French force was corn- 
Years' War, pletely wrecked by an English army of less than 
1337. one-third of its numbers. The battle was a de- 

cisive demonstration, that a skilful use of archery utterly destroyed 
the effectiveness of cavalry charging in masses. Horse and man 
went down before the clothyard shafts which hailed upon the 
flanks of the charging column, and the defeat became a slaughter. 
Some sixty years later precisely the same lesson in war was 
repeated under very similar conditions with the English when 
Henry v. shattered the French army at Agincourt. 

Shortly after the capture of Calais there was a truce. But 
there was a contest in Brittany for the succession to the duke- 
dom; so English and French found excuse for fighting each 
other, taking opposite sides in their quarrel. Moreover, as 
neither party carried out the conditions of the truce, they soon 
fell to fighting again in Guienne, where it must be remembered 
that the population were siding with their own over-lord in a feudal 
quarrel against his over-lord, the King of France, Here was 
fought the famous battle of Poictiers, in which the Black Prince 
made King John of France prisoner. The result of this was 
Treaty of that the whole of Aquitaine was severed from the 
Bretigny, French Crown, and became a separate principality 

under the Black Prince, while the King of Eng- 
land resigned his claim to the French Crown, under what is 
generally known as the treaty of Bretigny. Again the treaty 
terms were not carried out ; the extortions of the Black Prince 
in Aquitaine, forced on him by his immense expenditure on a 
civil war in Spain in which he chose to take part, turned the 
population of the province against him ; and in the latter years 
Expulsion of of Edward in. the English were driven almost com- 
the English, pletely out of France, and Aquitaine was again 
brought into the feudal dominion of the French king. 

While the war with England was at its height two insurrections 
took place, which seemed to give a foretaste of troubles which 
beset France four hundred years afterwards. One was the 
revolt of Paris, which, with the other great towns, was now be- 



THE CLOSE: WEST AND EAST 219 

coming powerful ; the other was a revolt of the peasants called 
the Jacquerie ; the former demanding political privileges and 
the latter the right to live like human beings. The The Jac- 
nobles here found themselves compelled to give querie, 1358. 
the Crown their support. The peasants were crushed, and the 
growing power of the cities was curtailed. Just after the treaty 
of Bretigny there was another event, of which the importance was 
not immediately apparent. One of the French fiefs was the 
duchy of Burgundy ; the French portion of what had once been 
the Burgundian kingdom, of which very much the The Duke- 
greater part was attached to the German Empire, dom of 
not to the French Crown. The line of dukes now Bur ^ und y- 
failed, and the duchy became Crown property. The king be- 
stowed it on his younger son Philip. Philip acquired by marriage 
the county of Burgundy, otherwise called Franche Comte, which 
was a fief of the empire, and also Flanders, with other provinces 
of the old Burgundian kingdom. Hence a hundred years after- 
wards we shall find the Duke of Burgundy in a position to aim 
at setting up once more a middle kingdom between France and 
Germany, stretching from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. 

There was a period of rather more than forty years, during 
which the English were too much occupied at home to make 
anything more than desultory attempts at renewing the war in 
France. But in the meanwhile France fell upon evil days. A 
boy, Charles vi., succeeded to the throne, and when he grew up 
he proved to be more than half crazy. His uncles of Orleans 
and Burgundy took possession of the regency; but France was 
divided into two factions, bitterly hostile, of which they or their 
children were the respective leaders. Treacherous murders were 
committed on both sides. The two parties were known as 
Burgundians and Armagnacs. The English Henry v. seized his 

opportunity to invade France, won the battle of ml , „ 
. . J . , ' The Conquest 

Agmcourt, returned three years later to make a by Henry v., 

deliberate organised conquest piecemeal of the 142 °* 

north of France, brought the Burgundian party to support him, 

and, before his premature death, was actually master of the 

northern half of France, and had secured for himself the 

succession to Charles vi. 



22o THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

But Henry died just before Charles, and the English triumph 

was short-lived. The French king's eldest surviving son claimed 

his fathers crown. For some time the English held their own, 

under Henry's brother Bedford acting as regent 
Joan of Arc. J & & 

for the young Henry vi. But the Burgundian 

alliance cooled. The French resistance received an extraordinary 

impulse from the appearance on the scene of the famous Joan 

of Arc, the maid of Orleans. After some astonishing successes, 

as a result of which Charles vn. was crowned king at Rheims, 

she was captured by the Burgundians who were still in alliance 

with the English, was tried for witchcraft before a court of 

The English French ecclesiastics, and was handed over to the 

expelled, English to be burnt at the stake. But her work 

was accomplished. The Duke of Burgundy very 

shortly afterwards broke off his alliance with the English, who 

again became to a great extent absorbed in civil broils ; and 

after 1453, the English had no foothold left in France except 

Paris. 

During the latter part of his reign, which closed in 146 1, 

Charles vn. was occupied in reorganising the government of the 

country which had gone to pieces during the long wars. A 

r™. „ r. military system was organised, which enabled the 
The French , , , , , ■ . r , • 

Crown king to call out local levies instead of being 

strength- dependent on the forces of the feudal nobility. 

ened 

The cost was met by a permanent tax which freed 

the Crown from the necessity of making frequent appeals for 

money with the risk of refusal, such as the kings of England 

had to submit to. 

A strong government meant concentration of power in the 

hands of the king, and to this end Charles's successor, Louis xi., 

devoted himself. By intrigue and by diplomacy, by making 

promises and breaking them when convenient, occasionally by 

Louis XL, force of arms though not if he could manage to 

1461-1483. avoid it, Louis deprived the nobles of their power, 

and finally achieved the overthrow of his most dangerous rival, 

Charles the Bold or the Rash, of Burgundy. The outcome of 

this contest was that nearly the whole of the southern part of the 

old Burgundian kingdom actually passed to France, though not 



THE CLOSE: WEST AND EAST 221 

Franche Comte. On the other hand Flanders and the Low 
Countries remained to the Duke of Burgundy, and passed to his 
heiress Mary, who married Maximilian, the son of the Emperor 
Frederick 111. 

Charles the Bold was the last duke in direct succession from 
Philip, son of King John of France, who had been made Duke 
of Burgundy shortly after the battle of Poictiers. cha^g tJle 
His father, Philip the Good, had consolidated his Bold of 
dominion, which included the rich trading cities Bur gundy. 
of the Low Countries, the Holland and Belgium of our own 
day. The court of the Duke of Burgundy was wealthier and 
more splendid than any royal court in Europe. It was the 
object of Charles to acquire Lorraine, so as to unite the Low 
Countries with the duchy and county of Burgundy, to get 
possession of Switzerland and Provence, and to have himself 
recognised as an independent king. These large designs 
roused opponents against him on all sides, and it was by 
stirring up these opponents that Louis of France successfully 
brought him to ruin. The blows which finally overthrew him 
were delivered by the Swiss at the battles of Granson, Morat, 
and Nancy, at the last of which he was killed. By his daughter's 
marriage the Low Countries and Franche Comte became attached 
to the house of Hapsburg. 

Switzerland, at this point, becomes prominent, but Switzer- 
land did not actually form a state. It consisted of a group of 
districts within the German Empire, which had 2. Switzer- 
formed a league for their own protection. At land. 
the end of the thirteenth century, three of these districts or 
cantons had first formed a league against the Duke of Austria, 
whose attempts to crush them were defeated at 

1315 

the battle of Morgarten. More cantons joined 
the league; the neighbouring German nobles combined to 
crush them, and were overthrown at the famous battle of 
Sempach in 1386. These great victories, ending with that 
at Nancy, of the mountaineers over the finest feudal forces 
in Europe, gave the Swiss a tremendous reputation, and made 
them exceedingly valuable allies from the military point of 
view. 



222 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

Almost throughout this period we have seen England as the 

rival of France. King Edward i. was frequently engaged in 

contests with the French kinsr over questions of 
3. England. ,-.-,... , , , , . - , 

their feudal rights, but the great struggle did not 

begin till the reign of his grandson, Edward in. Edward I. 
himself was mainly engaged in consolidating the English state, 
seeking first to bring our whole island under one dominion ; 
and secondly, to strengthen the king's government as against 
the barons, and also as against the Church. He failed in his 
Scottish In- fi rst object, for, though he conquered Wales and 
dependence, repeatedly overran Scotland, the Scots rose again 
whenever his back was turned ; and finally, under the leadership 
of King Robert Bruce, compelled England to acknowledge their 
independence during the reign of Edward n., on whom they 
inflicted a terrific defeat at Bannockburn. Through- 
out the long period of the French wars, English 
and Scots perpetually raided each other's territory, and during 
the fifteenth century Scottish troops won more than one 
important victory for the French in France. A strong central 
government never existed in Scotland, except under Robert 
the Bruce, and about a century afterwards under James i. 
This was natural, since all but two of the Scots kings, after 
the great King Robert, were young children when they came 
to the throne. The country was torn by the factions of nobles, 
but the one sure way of uniting the factions was by attempting 
to assert English supremacy. 

But if Edward's scheme for forming one united kingdom 
failed, he succeeded in establishing in England a system of 
The English government in advance of that of any other 
Constitu- European country. He gave permanence to the 

tion * English parliament; he gave it in 1295 a sna pe 

which lasted with little modification for more than five hundred 
years. The right of parliament to grant or withhold supplies 
was established, as was also the great principle that the 
government, the king, and the officers of state, may not over- 
ride the law. In the long French wars all Englishmen 
were well aware that the English victories were won by the 
common folk, the archers, more than by the prowess of mail- 



THE CLOSE : WEST AND EAST 223 

clad nobles and knights ; and the sense of personal independ- 
ence was vigorously fostered. We need not here follow the 
course of dynastic struggles. On that head it will be enough 
to say that the fierce contest between the rival Lancaster 
houses of Lancaster and York, called the Wars and York, 
of the Roses, almost annihilated the old nobility, while it 
enabled France to throw off the English yoke; but it did not 
have the same destructive effect on the towns, or on the general 
population. The danger of a close aristocracy being formed was 
averted ; and after the strife was brought to an end, and the rival 
houses were united in the Tudor dynasty, the leading statesmen 
and the most powerful families were not found amongst the 
ancient nobility. 

Of the Spanish kingdoms during this period Aragon played 
a part of some importance, owing to her naval power in 
the Mediterranean, and to her appropriation first 
of one Sicily and then of both. In the four- 
teenth century Sicily was under a separate branch of the 
royal family of Aragon. In the fifteenth century 
Sicily itself was annexed to the Crown of Ara- 
gon, while a separate Aragonese dynasty ruled over Naples. 

Castile was occupied with wars sometimes against her neigh- 
bours of the Christian kingdoms, sometimes against the Moors 
and Granada, and sometimes also with civil strife. 
It was in a struggle for the succession to the Crown 
of Castile, between Pedro the Cruel and Henry of Trastamare, 
that Edward the Black Prince interfered ; for which England 
paid the penalty in the loss of Aquitaine. Within the peninsula 
the Castilian dominion was much the largest. When the 
united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon conquered Granada, 
the Spanish dominion was practically completed. But the 
third of the great Christian kingdoms, Portugal, 
was never absorbed into Castile or into the great 
Spanish kingdom, except at a later period, when, for three 
quarters of a century the royal family of Spain managed to 
keep the royal family of Portugal out of its inheritance. In 
the Middle Ages Portugal held its own, and in the fifteenth 
century it took the lead in maritime exploration. The steady 



224 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

determination of a prince, known as Henry the Navigator, 
despatched expedition after expedition, which explored the 
eastern coast of Africa, and prepared the way for the great 
voyagers, who at the end of the century found their way round 
the Cape of Good Hope, and set up a maritime empire in the 
eastern seas. 

On the east of Bohemia, and of the German border, lay the 
kingdom of Poland. Between Poland and the Baltic Sea, and 
5. North along the eastern shores of the Baltic, lay the 

and East. province or sovereignty of the Teutonic Knights. 

On the east of the Knights was the duchy of Lithuania, the 
last region in Europe to adopt Christianity. Beyond these 
were the Russian provinces, which, ever since the coming of 
the Tartar hordes, had remained subject to the Mongol 
dominion. There is no need to follow closely the story of 
these northern states at this stage, but we must note the 
position which had been reached in the fifteenth century. 
Poland may.be said to have begun to rank as a Power under 
a very able monarch, Casimir, during the middle period of the 
fourteenth century. On his death his nephew, 
King Lewis of Hungary, became King of Poland. 
King Lewis had two daughters. The one, Mary, succeeded to 
the Hungarian Crown and married Sigismund, afterwards German 
Emperor ; Poland, choosing that the Crowns should be separate, 
took for queen the other daughter Hedwig. Hedwig married 
the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jagellon, and thus began the 
Jagellon dynasty. The marriage made it necessary for Jagellon 
and his people to adopt Christianity. The Christianising of 
Lithuania left the Teutonic Knights without any particular justi- 
fication for their existence. In a few years' time the now 
powerful Polish kingdom had taken possession of much of 
their inheritance. Although the Jagellons held the Crown in 
succession for a couple of centuries, the monarchy was in form 
elective; and we periodically find both Hungary and Bohemia 
electing a King of Poland to their respective thrones, until both 
were secured by the Hapsburgs. Poland also extended her 
dominions eastwards over a considerable part of the Russian 
territory. It is important to bear in mind, with regard to 



THE CLOSE: WEST AND EAST 225 

subsequent developments, that the Christianity of Poland was 
that of Rome, not of the Greek Church ; whereas it was 
with the Greek Church that the Russians associated them- 
selves. 

The long subjection of the Russians to the Mongols gave 
them that half Asiatic character, of which they never divested 

themselves. It was a very lonsj time before Russia „ 

. ° Russia, 

entered the circle of the civilised states of Europe. 

But almost at the moment of the development of the Polish 

power by the union with Lithuania, Russia struck her first blow 

for freedom. The supremacy of the Mongol Khan continued 

to be recognised for half a century ; but the revival of a Russian 

kingdom, with its capital at Moscow, may be dated from the 

accession to the throne of Ivan 111. in 1462. 

We have not spoken of the Scandinavian kingdoms, whose 
external history is chiefly connected with the struggle for the 
position of dominant power in the Baltic, for 
which the German free cities of Liibeck on the 
west, and Dantzig on the east were competitors, as well as the 
Teutonic Knights, the Danes, and the Swedes. Of primary 
importance, however, is the union of the Crowns of Denmark 
and Norway in 1380, supplemented in 1397 by the union of 
Kalmar, which brought Sweden also under the same sceptre j 
although in this latter union there was little reality, and 
Sweden was in constant revolt. It may be considered that 
the real domination of the Baltic lay with the German free 
cities, who were members of that great combination of trading 
towns, known as the Hansa or Hanseatic League. 

The wars and struggles of Western and Northern Europe, with 
the exception of Italy, all tended to a similar issue — the gradual 
evolution of large, fairly consolidated states. Thus National 
at the end of our period, Scotland, England, and Consoiida- 
France were each of them clearly defined, separate, n ' 
homogeneous kingdoms. In the Spanish peninsula, there were 
four considerable kingdoms besides the small one of Navarre, 
and of these four three were on the verge of being combined 
into the one kingdom of Spain. The three Scandinavian 
kingdoms were united under one Crown ; Poland had become 

p 



226 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

an organised state, and Russia was at last beginning to follow 
suit. The German Empire was made up of a group of definite 
states, though their association under a single emperor was 
of a very loose kind. Hungary, also outside the empire, 
was a vigorous state ; and there was a degree of permanence 
even in the political divisions into which Italy had formed. 

But it was not so with the Balkan peninsula, that part of 
Europe which had once formed the European portion of the 
The Eastern Greek Empire. There, unity and political develop- 
Empire. ment had been finally wrecked by the attack of the 

Latin crusaders upon Byzantium. Out of that wreck had grown 
a new Bulgarian kingdom, with a Servian kingdom to the west of 
it. When the Latin Empire collapsed, and the Greek dynasty 
of the Palaeologi returned to Constantinople, they never held 
secure sway over any large portion of the peninsula ; and soon 
after the middle of the fourteenth century the Ottoman Turks 
The Otto- ^ad planted themselves on European soil. The 
mans in Servian kingdom had just made itself the strongest 

Europe. power in the peninsula; but on the death of the 

King Stefan Dusan, the prospect of a united dominion again 
collapsed, and the Ottomans began gradually to extend their 
conquests. At the close of the fourteenth century, Constanti- 
nople was already isolated ; the Turks were attacking Hungary, 
and Sigismund advancing against them was routed in the great 
battle of Nicopolis. 

But at this moment the Turkish advance was checked by the 

descent upon them of a new conqueror from the east. This 

was Timur or Tamerlane, himself a member of 

Ta TT1PT*1 1\ TIP 

another branch of the Turkish race. As the Otto- 
mans had wrested the supremacy from the Seljuks, so it now 
seemed that Timur would wrest the supremacy from them. 
Timur in fact overthrew Bajazet, but turned again eastwards 
to die without having consolidated an empire. But he had 
brought confusion upon the Ottoman Empire, and for a time 
the Ottoman advance was stayed. A few years later, however, 
the Turks were again advancing, held in check only by the skill 
and valour of the Hungarian, John Hunyadi, and the Albanian 
chief, Skanderbeg, a name which is the corruption of Alexander 



THE CLOSE : WEST AND EAST 227 

Bey. Chiefly to John Hunyadi, and to his son, Matthias 
Corvinus, who was elected King of Hungary in 1457, Christendom 
owes its defence from the conquering arms of Fall of Con 
the Turkish sultan, Mohammed 11. But, though stantinople, 
Albanians and Hungarians held the Turk at bay, 1453, 
they could not rescue Constantinople, which after a heroic 
resistance fell before the furious assault of the Turks on 
May 29, 1453. The ancient Roman Empire was at an end. 
For two and a half centuries to come, the international politics 
of Western Europe were perpetually affected by the attacks 
of the Ottomans upon the eastern dominions of the Austrian 
emperor. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



Book V., 1081 to 1470 



GUIDING DATES 



Alexius Comnenus . .1081 
Council of Clermont . . 1095 
First Crusade . . . 1097 
Investitures settled . . 1122 
Conrad of Hohenstaufen . 1 138 
Second Crusade . . . 1147 
Frederick Barbarossa .. 1152-1190 
Frederick's war with the 

Lombard cities . 11 58- 11 76 

Henry II. of Anjou, King 

of England . . . 11 54 
Alexander in., pope . . 11 59 
Murder of Becket . .1170 
PhilipAugustus,Frenchking 1180 
Saladin captures Jerusalem 1187 
Third Crusade . . .1189 
Henry VI., emperor . .1190 
Innocent ill., pope . . 1198 
Latin Empire of Byzantium 1204 
Battle of Navas de Tolosa . 12 12 
Frederick 11. . .1215-1250 
St. Louis IX. . . 1226-1270 
German Interregnum . 1256-1273 
Simon de Montfort . . 1265 



End of Crusades . 
Edward I. of England 1272 
Boniface VIII., pope . 1294 
Popes at Avignon . 1305 
Independence of Scotland . 
Teutonic Knights 
Battle of Morgarten . 
Hundred Years' War begins 
Charles IV., German king . 
Jacquerie . 
Wycliffe in England . 
Great Schism 
Henry V. in France 
Sigismund, German 



I37S 
1415. 

king, 
1411 

1414 



Council of Constance . 
Joan of Arc. 
Hapsburg dynasty 
Printing press invented 
Fall of Constantinople 
Louis xi. . 
Marriage of Ferdinand 
and Isabella . 



1272 
1307 
I3°3 
1377 
I3I4 
1309 

1315 
1337 
1347 
1358 
1370 
-1415 
-1422 

-1433 

-1417 

1429 

1433 

1442 

U53 
1 46 1 

1469 



LEADING NAMES 

Alexius Comnenus— Peter the Hermit — Urban II.— Godfrey de 
Bouillon— Henry Plantagenet— Thomas Becket— Pope Alexander III. 
— Frederick Barbarossa— Richard Coeur-de-Lion— Philip Augustus— 
Saladin— Innocent III.— Frederick II.— Simon de Montfort— Alfonso 
the Wise — Louis IX. — Charles of Anjou — Rudolf of Hapsburg — 
Edward I. — Genghis Khan — Boniface VIII. — Philip the Fair — 
Robert Bruce— Edward III.— Emperor Charles IV.— Wycliffe— Huss 
—Tamerlane— Henry V.—Wenzel— Sigismund— Othman— Joan of 
Arc— Sultan Mohammed— Louis XL— Charles the Bold— Constantine 
— John Hunyadi — Skanderbeg — Matthias Corvinus — Henry the 
Navigator— Ivan III.— Jagellon. 

228 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 229 



NOTES 

The Mongol or Tartar Dominion. Various waves of invasion by tribes 
inclusively known as Mongolian, and separately as Huns, Avars, 
Magyars, and Bulgarians flooded into Europe from the fifth to the 
tenth centuries A.D. Kindred Turkish peoples within the Mohammedan 
area produced the great ruler of the east, Mahmud of Ghazni, and 
the conquering Seljuk Turks in Western Asia, in the eleventh 
century. But the greatest of all the Mongolian movements was that 
of the Mongol or Tartar hordes in the thirteenth century. Their 
conquests did not cease with Genghis Khan's death. For a time 
one division played an important part in the Bagdad kaliphate ; 
another division established a supremacy over Russia which lasted 
till the latter part of the fifteenth century. It was in the far east, 
however, that their dominion had some constructive characteristics, 
whereas in the west it was only destructive. The great Mongol 
Khublai Khan, in the latter half of the thirteenth century, received 
the far east as his share of the empire, which reached from the 
Baltic Sea to the Pacific. We have a contemporary account of his 
empire from the great Venetian traveller, Marco Polo. He was a 
conqueror, though Japan repelled the Mongol attack in a great sea- 
fight ; but he was also distinguished for his encouragement of the 
arts of peace, of literature and learning, and of organised government. 
The Mongol rulers of China are known as the Guan dynasty. In 
1365, seventy years after Khublai's death, the dynasty was over- 
thrown and replaced by the Chinese Ming dynasty. 

Burgundy. At different times ' Burgundy ' meant different things. 
Looking at the map of Western Europe in the ninth century, the 
'middle kingdom' of Lothar is in three portions, Lotharingia or 
Lorraine, Burgundy, and Italy. Burgundy is that portion with the 
river Rhone on its west. The northern part of this is divided into the 
duchy of Burgundy which went to France, and the county of 
Burgundy or Franche Comte which went to the German Empire. 
The southern part comprised Savoy, Dauphine, and Provence 
Dauphine was acquired by France at the end of the thirteenth 
century ; Provence, an independent principality, was acquired by 
Louis XI. The dukedom of Savoy plays a separate part, and is 
later on translated into the kingdom of Sardinia. Burgundy begins 
to be a power in the fourteenth century, when the French dukedom 
lapsed to the Crown, and was given by the French King John to his 
younger son Philip in 1462. Philip's marriage brought to him also 



2 3 o THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 

the French fief of Flanders, and the Imperial fief of Franche Comte. 
Later, marriages added to the dominions of the Duke of Burgundy 
practically the whole of what we now call Belgium and Holland, 
forming the Low Countries or Netherlands. It was the ambition of 
Charles the Bold to complete the territorial connection between 
Burgundy and the Netherlands, and to annex the southern part of 
old Burgundy so as to create a consolidated territory from the North 
Sea to the Mediterranean, between France and the empire. 

India. Throughout this period, a series of Mohammedan dynasties 
ruled in Northern India, at one time extending their sway over 
almost the whole peninsula. The Mohammedans, however, are always 
a conquering military caste, ruling by the sword over a very much 
larger Hindu population, in whose eyes they are aliens and accursed, 
and who in their eyes are infidels and idolaters. At the close of the 
period, a great Hindu kingdom has arisen in the south. 

Chivalry. This period is often entitled the Age of Chivalry ; it 
was the age when the knight's professed ideal was that of utter 
loyalty to God and to his ladye-love, of defending the weak, and of 
righting the wrong. The ideal, however, does not often seem to 
have been pursued ; even among those who were regarded as 
mirrors of chivalry, like our own ' Black Prince,' there was usually 
little enough consideration for the weak if they happened to be of 
humble birth. The liveliest picture of the fourteenth century is to be 
found in the chronicles of Froissart, where we see Chivalry at its 
brightest ; it is at its blackest in the contemporary records of the reign 
of our King Stephen in the twelfth century. Probably, however, 
Chivalry was at its real best in the days when the power of the papacy 
was at its greatest, during the thirteenth century ; an age when the 
'enthusiasm of humanity' was preached by the newly instituted orders 
of the Dominicans and Franciscans ; the age whose finest qualities 
were concentrated in the person of the French king, St. Louis. 



BOOK VI 
THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 



CHAPTER XVI 

TRANSITION 

During the Middle Ages, that is to say, from the fall of the 
western Roman Empire to the latter part of the fifteenth 
century, the great states of Europe were only The Great 
shaping themselves. We have seen a long struggle States emerg e. 
between England and France, and a struggle between the 
empire and the papacy, and the shifting of the power from 
one to another of the great houses within the German Empire. 
We have now reached a point at which four first-class powers 
emerge : Spain, France, Austria, and England, the German 
Empire being associated sometimes with Spain and sometimes 
with Austria. The key to half the complications which em- 
broiled Europe for centuries to come is to be found in the 
position of the house of Hapsburg, and the enormous posses- 
sions in the hands of one branch or other of that family. It 
will be well, therefore, to work this out to begin with. 

The Hapsburg Emperor Frederick in. is comparatively un- 
important ; not so his son Maximilian, who was named King 
of the Romans, or in other words, heir to the i. The 
empire, a good many years before his father's Hapsburgs. 
death. Maximilian himself was heir to the Hapsburg inheritance, 
which included claims on the Crowns of Bohemia and Hungary. 
He married Mary, the heiress of Burgundy; Hapsburg 
Mary bore him a son known as the Archduke Marriages. 
Philip. Philip then was heir to the Hapsburg inheritance and 
the Burgundian inheritance, that is to say, the Low Countries 
and Franche Comte. Philip married Joanna, daughter and 

233 



234 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

heiress of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. They 
had two sons, Charles and Ferdinand. Charles, therefore, was 
heir to the Hapsburg inheritance, the Burgundian inheritance, 
and the whole Spanish inheritance including the New World, 
which had been discovered by Christopher Columbus, and 
had been bestowed upon Spain by a bull of Pope Alexander vi. 
The Spanish inheritance also included possession or claims to 
possession of the Crowns of the two Sicilies as well as sundry 
Italian duchies. With this vast inheritance Charles also 
obtained the succession to the empire ; but, on the other hand, 
while he retained his Burgundian possessions, he transferred 
the Austrian claims to his brother Ferdinand. When Charles 
himself disappeared from the scene, the succession to the 
empire as well as to the Austrian dominion went to Ferdinand 
and the Austrian Hapsburgs ; while everything derived from 
Mary of Burgundy or Joanna of Castile remained to his son 
Philip and the Spanish branch of the Hapsburgs. 

It would naturally have appeared that with such vast domains 
under his control, Charles v. might have completely dominated 
Charles v., Europe. That he did not do so was due to his 
Emperor. inability to control the German Empire; because 

that empire was split into two camps by the Reformation, and 
he could never be sure that one half of the German princes 
would not make common cause with his opponents. The 
Reformation, if we date its commencement from the challenge 
thrown down by Luther to the papacy, began precisely at the 
moment when the young Charles was entering upon his in- 
heritance. When, later, the Spanish Crown was separated from 
The Spanish tne empire, Spain seemed to its own king and to 
and Austrian the world to wield a power still mightier than that 
Branches. which Charles v. had been able to exercise,, and 

she could always feel assured that the Austrian Hapsburgs 
would not actively oppose her, though they might be either 
unable or unwilling to lend her direct support. In the follow- 
ing century, the seventeenth, the Spanish power waned, but 
that of the Austrian Hapsburgs increased, so that a Hapsburg 
ascendency was maintained on the continent until France was 
able to win the ascendency for her own royal family. 



TRANSITION 235 

Between 1480 and 1490 the coming greatness of the Haps- 

burgs had not revealed itself. Maximilian's son was a baby, 

and the Low Countries declined to admit that 

• .1. 1 1 ^ 1 • 2 - Europe. 

Maximilian had any authority over them. Bohemia 

had elected a Polish king; and Matthias Corvinus, the son of 

John Hunyadi, was not only King of Hungary, but was in 

effective possession of most of Frederick iii.'s Austria in 

Austrian territories. It was still extremely doubt- 148 °- 

ful whether the Hapsburgs would succeed in recovering their 

own dominion ; there was no present prospect of their securing 

either Hungary or Bohemia, especially when, on the death of 

Matthias, Hungary elected to its own monarchy the Polish King 

of Bohemia; there was little enough security that the Low 

Countries would be brought under their control; and, finally, 

the matrimonial alliance had not yet been formed with the 

houses of Castile and Aragon. 

England, the fourth of the great powers named, was at this 
stage in a very humble position. The struggle between 
Lancaster and York had exhausted her; and 
though this was brought to an end by the 
accession of Henry vn. in 1485, when Richard 111. was 
slain at Bosworth field, and by the king's marriage to the 
heiress of York, the new king's seat on his throne was ex- 
tremely insecure. He was ruling, however, with immense 
astuteness, patience and foresight, gradually filling the royal 
treasury, and concentrating power in his own hands, while 
making a great show of acting in partnership with the parlia- 
ments which he made a point of summoning frequently. 

The two states which had made a really marked advance 

were France and Spain, though even now Spain could hardly 

be spoken of as one state. Louis xi. had brought 

France 
under the royal control practically the whole of 

what we now call France, with the exception of Brittany, which 

retained a certain degree of independence. Brittany, too, was 

almost immediately brought in by the marriage of the young 

French king, Charles vni., to the still younger Duchess Anne. 

No sooner was this accomplished than Charles invaded Italy 

to assert in his own name the Angevin claim to the throne of 



236 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

Naples, which was now held, as we have seen, by a junior 
branch of the house of Aragon. 

In Spain, Isabella, Queen of Castile, and Ferdinand, King of 
Aragon, were husband and wife. They intended to create a 

united Spain, and were jealous enough of France. 

To check France they had fostered trouble in 
Brittany, and were about to give one daughter in marriage to the 
son of Maximilian, and another to the son of Henry of Eng- 
land. But their first and most important business was the 
destruction of the Moorish kingdom in Granada, the existence 
of which was incompatible with the unification of Spain. 
While, as with every other king, their domestic policy was 
directed to strengthening the power of the Crown as against that 
of the nobles, both in Castile and in Aragon, they materially 
assisted their policy by a war which brought prestige to the 
monarchs and diverted the attention of the nobles to the 
pursuit of military glory. The war was at last brought to a 
close at the end of 1491 by the capture of the city of Granada 
itself. Except Portugal and Navarre, the whole peninsula 
was in the grip of the two wedded sovereigns. Ferdinand 
could turn his eyes to Italy, and to counteracting the extension 
of the French power. 

In 1494 Charles entered Italy, made an easy conquest of 
Naples, and then withdrew ■ but his back was no sooner turned 

than the French were again expelled. Charles 

died, and was succeeded by his cousin Louis xn., 
who renewed the claim to Naples, and added his own personal 
claim, as the grandson of a Visconti, to the dukedom of Milan. 
Ferdinand of Aragon agreed to a partition of the Neapolitan 
kingdom between himself and Louis, but pretexts were soon 
found for breaking through the arrangement ; the French were 
again expelled by Gonsalvo di Cordova, known as the ' Great 
Captain, 5 and the kingdom was annexed to Aragon. 

Meanwhile, the momentous marriage had taken place be- 
tween the Archduke Philip and Joanna of Castile, who, through 
Ferdinand and the death of an elder sister and brother, became 
Maximilian. heiress to both the Spanish kingdoms. Joanna 
herself became insane ; Isabella of Castile died, and soon after 



TRANSITION 237 

her the Archduke Philip. Setting aside Joanna the child 
Charles was now Lord of Burgundy and Castile, his grandfather 
Ferdinand having no actual rights in Castile; and his other 
grandfather Maximilian, who had now succeeded Frederick as 
emperor, having no rights in Burgundy. Each of the grand- 
fathers tried to get the child's possessions into his own hands, 
and each was also extremely anxious to prevent the power of 
France from increasing. Each tried to make a cat's-paw of the 
young King of England, Henry viil, till Thomas Wolsey 
appeared as Henry's adviser, and soon proved himself a match 
even for such a past master of diplomatic cunning as Ferdinand. 
Thus these years provide a complication of intrigues and wars, 
the unravelling of which would occupy too much space. 

Two battles, however, require a passing note. One is that 
of Marignano, by which the young French king, Francis 1., 
obtained a temporary supremacy in the north of Marignano, 
Italy, after defeating an army the strength of 1515 - 
which lay in the Swiss troops hitherto reputed invincible. The 

second is the battle of Flodden, which stopped m • „„„ 
r 1 r r. 1 1 1 Hodden, 1513. 

the development of the power of Scotland under 

James iv., whose death in the battle left the country once 

more to be torn in pieces by the rivalries of the nobility. 

By 1 5 19 both Ferdinand and Maximilian were dead; Charles 
entered upon his complete inheritance, and was elected, as 
Maximilian's successor, as emperor ; an election in The three 
which he defeated the young King of France, the Kin ss, 1519. 
victor of Marignano, and in which Henry viii. of England was 
very near being a candidate. The destinies of Europe appeared 
to be in the hands of these three princes, not one of whom was 
thirty years old, and of whom Charles was the youngest. Very 
shortly after the Imperial election, Charles ceded his Austrian 
dominions to his brother Ferdinand ; who also, by an arrangement 
with Hungary and Bohemia, presently succeeded to the Crowns 
of these two kingdoms. 

At about the same time Sweden became definitely separated 
from Denmark and Norway, and the dynasty of Gustavus Vasa 
was established, Denmark and Norway remaining under the 
dynasty of Oldenburg. 



238 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

Meanwhile, however, the way was being prepared for a revolu- 
tion, which was to split Europe into two camps on an entirely 
3. Two new line, under the banners of the Papacy and of 

Revolutions. t } ie Reformation ; commonly and conveniently, if 
by no means accurately, labelled as Catholic and Protestant. 
The inaccuracy must be emphasised, because the term Protestant 
properly applied only to one section of the Reformers ; while a 
very large body of the anti-papal group claimed that they had 
as good a title as the Romanists to the title of Catholic. In fact, 
however, no one has ever been able to suggest designations 
which represent with anything like accuracy the nature of the 
division which took place; and the popular names remain on 
the whole the least misleading and the most intelligible as 
political labels. But besides the approach of the Reformation, 
another revolution was in progress. The horizon of Europe was 
suddenly extended; the ocean was converted into a high-road 
to a newly-discovered world in the west and a rediscovered 
world in the east, and a new battle-field was entered upon. 

For half a century after the Council of Constance, the popes 
had done much to restore their own moral prestige ; but politi- 
cally the papacy had assumed more and more the 
The Papacy. . J r / \ . . .... _. . . _ 

character of an Italian principality. Ine revival 01 

General Councils had given prominence to the conception of a 
spiritual authority on earth higher than that of the pope. Then 
in 147 1 there began with Sextus iv. a series of popes whose 
personal vices and crimes were a scandal to all Christendom. 
The culminating point was reached in the person of the Borgia, 
Alexander vi., who ruled from 1492 to 1503. The family of the 
Borgias, whose aggrandisement this pope made his main object, 
have an unenviable notoriety in the annals of crime. Iniquity 
in high places led to a general degradation of religion, and at the 
The same time aroused a zeal for moral reform, which 

Reformation, however did not carry at first with it any inclination 
to challenge the doctrines of the Church or the existing ecclesias- 
tical order. It followed rather two parallel courses : one directed 
to the spread of knowledge, culture, and rational criticism, as 
providing a rational basis for the higher life ; the other seeking 
directly to raise the moral standard of practice. 



TRANSITION 



2 39 



The prophet of Puritanism as we may call this latter effort was 
the Florentine monk Savonarola; the greatest of the ' Humanists ' 
was Erasmus of Rotterdam. Neither Savonarola s avonaro i a 
nor Erasmus intended to attack the Church. Erasmus, 
Neither of them advocated those views of WyclirTe Luther - 
and Huss which had been condemned as heretical, but both 
taught multitudes of men to perceive that the existing system 
was rotten. It remained for another monk, Martin Luther, a 
professor at the University of Wittenberg, the capital of the 
Elector of Saxony, to take up the position which forced him to 
challenge the authority of the pope, root and branch. 

At the moment when Martin Luther came forward, the papacy 
had passed through its worst days, but it had not attempted to 
resume a spiritual character. The successor of Julius II., 
Alexander vi. was Julius n., a militant pope, whose Leo x - 
great desire was to strengthen the papacy as a temporal princi- 
pality. He was a vigorous politician and soldier, but a pope 
who rode in armour on the battle-field was not the man to 
redeem the Church from the charge of seeking the things of this 
world more than the glory of God. After Julius came Leo x., 
one of the great Florentine house of the Medici ; brilliant and 
cultured, who, as a secular prince, was deserving of applause; but 
for religion he cared nothing. Leo was in want of money, and to 
raise it he resorted to a familiar device, the sale of Indulgences. 

The pope claimed the power of absolving men 

,.. , ... r . . ° Indulgences, 

from their sins, always on condition or their repent- 
ance; the power of remitting the penalties which their souls 
should endure in purgatory. Absolution however was normally 
accompanied by the imposition of penances, penalties to be 
voluntarily endured by the repentant sinner. The theory of the 
Indulgences was, that instead of imposing penances the pope 
would be satisfied by the payment of a small sum into the coffers 
of the Church. In theory it was not a pardon that was sold, but 
only freedom from penance ; the pardon was valid only if the 
sinner repented. But this was not the popular view, which 
amounted to a simple conviction that a pardon was bought and 
paid for. Pope Leo proposed to sell the Indulgences on a huge 
scale at a very small price. Martin Luther had come to the 



2 4 o THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

conclusion that neither the pope nor any other mortal man has 
power to pardon sin. When the papal commissioners were coming 
with their Indulgences to Saxony, he affixed to the doors of the 
Cathedral a series of theses against them; and he persuaded 
Frederick the Elector of Saxony to forbid the commissioners to 
enter Saxon territory. So in 15 17 the battle began. 

Hitherto the limits of the known world — the world, that is, of 
which the west had any knowledge — had not gone eastward 
4. The Dis- beyond the boundaries of the old Persian Empire, 
coveries. nor westward beyond those of the Roman Empire. 

Southwards they had been fixed by the North African deserts. 
In fact since the Roman time, the centre and north and east 
The Known of Europe had been brought within the range of 
World. civilisation ; otherwise there had been practically 

no change. Even now Russia was for the most part outside the 
known range. The Norwegians had colonised Iceland; they 
had even carried their voyages to Greenland, and adventurous 
explorers had certainly touched Labrador and Newfoundland. 
But these ventures had passed into the regions of forgotten 
myths. Neither the Norsemen nor any one else had felt tempted 
Travellers' to follow in the tracks of those early explorers. 
Tales. There were legends of a wonderful Isle of Atlantis 

far away in western waters, and there were Portuguese sailors 
in the early fifteenth century who affirmed that having been 
carried by storms far over the ocean, they had seen a vast island 
on the western horizon. In very early days Phoenician sailors 
had doubled the Cape of Good Hope ; but their story, though 
carefully recorded, had been discredited because the true facts 
which they reported had appeared to be mere travellers' tales. 
For two thousand years no one had thought of circumnavigating 
Africa. From India and from China, known to the western 
world as Cathay, merchandise had come by way of Persia and 
Bagdad ; and the crusaders brought home amazing tales of the 
wealth and the mystery of the far east, the way to which was 
barred by the Mohammedan powers. Some adventurous spirits 
had even made their way to the remotest east in the days when 
the Mongol dominion was at its mightiest, and Khubla Khan 
reigned in Xanadu. Concerning these far lands men cheerfully 



TRANSITION 241 

believed the wildest legends, but placed little trust in the 
veracious reports of travellers like Marco Polo. 

The way to India was blocked by land, but in the fifteenth 
century men were beginning to think that it might be possible 
to get there by sea. Portuguese sailors gradually Columbus, 
creeping along the east coast of Africa began to 1492 - 
dream of a sea passage round the continent. The Genoese, 
Christopher Columbus, conceived the idea of sailing westwards 
round the world until the coast of India should be reached. He 
tried, and failed to obtain help for such an expedition from 
Portugal; then even while his brother was making a similar 
attempt with Henry vu. in England, he got the needed aid from 
Isabella of Castile, at the moment when Spain was freed from 
more pressing claims at home by her conquest of Granada. At 
the end of 1492 an expedition under Columbus sailed out to the 
unknown west, and reached the islands called the West Indies, 
under the impression, which still prevailed when he died, that it 
was India he had reached. It was a later voyager, Amerigo 
Vespucci, who gave his name to the vast continent in the west. 
On the strength of the doctrine that the unknown heathen world 
was the property of the pope, Alexander vi. issued a bull under 
which he bestowed on Spain all lands that might be discovered 
west of a line drawn from north to south, and east of that line on 
Portugal. Thus it was that Brazil, being east of the line, fell to 
Portugal, and the rest of America to Spain. 

Even before the great voyage of Columbus, the Portuguese, 

Bartholomew Diaz, reached the Cape of Good Hope which was 

doubled in 1497 by Vasco da Gama, who sailed up vasco da 

the east coast of Africa, and striking across the G ama » 1497 - 

Indian Ocean reached Calicut at the south of India in 1498. 

It was in 15 19, the year when Charles v. became emperor, that 

the Portuguese Magelhaens sailed on the great voyage on which 

he passed through the Straits of Magellan at the 

. . ]YLa^6iiia6iis. 

south of America; and in 1522 his ships got home, 

the first which had circumnavigated the world, though their 

captain had died on the voyage. 

The Portuguese secured to themselves, by grace of the native 

rulers, stations on the west coast of India, and on the mouth of 

Q ' 



242 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

the Persian Gulf; and under Albuquerque they established a 
Portuguese maritime empire in all the eastern seas. The 
Spaniards established themselves in the West Indies, and at the 
end of 15 18 Cortes had started on that expedition which was to 
bring the empire of Mexico under Spanish dominion. 




EUROPE in 1610 

To illustrate Chapters XVI-XXI I 

Dominions of Spanish Hapsburgs V77\ 

Dominions of Austrian Hapsburgs 

French and Imperial Boundaries — 

Ml. = MILAN! P. = PARMA; M.= MODENA. 



Emery Walker sc. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 

The long reign of Charles v. witnessed the development of the 
first stage of the Reformation, which parted Europe into two 
l. 1519 to camps, and the prolonged rivalry between the 
1558. emperor and the King of France. We shall see 

that period of rivalry finally leaving France without posses- 
sions in Italy, but with her frontier strengthened on the German 
side by the acquisition of Metz; and in possession, at last, of 
Calais, the one foothold on the continent which England had 
retained for a very little more than two hundred years. It 
leaves Spain in possession of nearly all Italy as well as of the 
Low Countries and of the county of Burgundy, while it leaves 
the Imperial succession with the Austrian Hapsburgs. 

In England and Scotland at this stage the Reformation has 
not been completely victorious ; in both countries the existing 
Progress of government is devoted to the papacy — in England 
the Refor- under the reactionary Queen Mary, and in Scot- 
mation. \2ac1d under the reactionary Queen Regent, Mary 

of Guise ; but in both countries the reaction is on the verge of 
being crushed. In France the government is orthodox and 
oppressive towards its Protestant subjects, while its rivalry with 
Spain, an absolutely Romanist power, makes it ready to counte- 
nance and to ally itself with Protestantism outside its own 
borders. The Scandinavian countries have become Protestant ; 
Switzerland, independent since the beginning of the century, is a 
centre of Protestantism. Protestantism prevails in the northern 
states of Germany and of the Low Countries ; Romanism in the 

244 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 245 

southern states ; but in Germany the Protestant and the Catholic 
states have come to terms. 

At the moment when Charles v. was elected emperor, French 
interests were in conflict with his on every side. Milan was 
held by Francis, but Charles had a claim on it as Charles V. 
a fief of the empire. Naples was held by Charles, and Francis I. 
but Francis had not resigned the Angevin claim there. France 
had absorbed the duchy of Burgundy, which Charles still 
regarded as part of his own lawful inheritance. A part of the 
Low Countries consisted of what were still technically fiefs of 
the French Crown. Finally, the competition for the empire had 
created a strong personal antagonism between the two monarchs. 

Within his own personal dominions the sovereignty of 
Charles in Castile was still limited, while in the Low Countries 
princes and cities claimed privileges which also limited his 
powers. In Germany the power of the emperor was still more 
restricted, and the Constitution demands further attention. 

The empire was, in fact, a collection of states, large and 
small, with the emperor as president. Of these states, seven 
held the leading position as £ Electorates,' with constitution 
whose princes rested the choice of the emperor, of the Empire. 
Three were ecclesiastical, the archbishoprics of Cologne, 
Mainz, and Trier, or Treves. Four were lay principalities, 
Saxony, Brandenburg, the Palatinate, and Bohemia; but in 
other respects, Bohemia stood outside, having no part in the 
diet or council of the empire. Saxony at this time was divided 
between two branches of the same family ; the head of one 
being the Elector, while the head of the other held the title 
of Duke. The diet of the empire consisted of three colleges : 
the first consisting of the Electors, the second of the rest of 
the princes, and the third of the deputies of the free cities. 
There was no other representation of the commons, of vassals 
of the princes, or of the knights or lesser nobles who owned no 
feudal superiors except the emperor himself. Outside of the 
Electors, the three most important princes were those of Austria, 
Bavaria, and Hesse. There was a supreme Court of Justice 
called the Imperial Chamber, whose members were chosen by 
the diet. 



246 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

Charles and Francis were both anxious for the support of 
the papacy and of England. Francis met King Henry at the 
The War in famous field of the Cloth of Gold, 'but it was 
Italy. Charles who got the support of England, and 

Charles also offered the pope better terms than his rival. 
When the war between them began, it appeared that Charles 
would sweep the board in Italy. He conquered Milan, which 
was handed over to Francesco Sforza. In 1523 another Medici, 
Clement vn., was raised to the papal throne through the influ- 
ence of Charles. A brief tide of victory induced Francis to 
invade Italy, where at Pavia he met with a crushing defeat, 
and was himself taken prisoner. To Charles's allies this 
triumph seemed to make Charles himself too powerful ; the 
pope and Sforza both turned against him. It was not long 
before England withdrew her support, presently going over to 
the French alliance. Charles, however, extorted from his 
prisoner the concession of all the points in dispute. Francis 
was hardly set free when he renewed the war, claiming that 
the promises made were not binding, as they had been given 
under compulsion. In Italy a league was formed against the 
emperor between Venice, Milan, and the pope. The emperor's 
forces captured Milan, marched on Rome, and being in arrear 
with their pay, sacked the Eternal City as Alaric himself had 
not sacked it, and held the pope a prisoner. Altogether affairs 
went badly for France, and when peace was made, she had once 
more to surrender nearly all her claims. In Italy Charles held 
the pope in the hollow of his hand, and Venice was the only 
really independent state left. 

We must now turn to the course of the Reformation during 
these twelve years. Martin Luther's attack on the Indulgences 
Luther's did not bring him directly under the ban of the 

Challenge. pope, but it did bring upon him an immediate 
onslaught of the extreme clerical party among the ecclesiastics. 
Luther, however, made his appeal to the lay princes, who had 
a strong objection to Indulgences as carrying away large sums 
of money out of their own dominions to fill the papal coffers. 
Honest religious convictions had a very large share in the 
Reformation ; but the desire of lay princes to share or to 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 247 

appropriate the immense wealth of the Church, and to stop 
the immense contributions to the treasury of the papacy, was 
also a very important factor. Luther, plunged into a fiery 
controversy with clerical antagonists, found himself compelled 
to affirm his own adherence to doctrines of Huss and Wycliffe, 
which had been condemned as heretical. His opponents 
appealed to Leo x., and Leo issued a bull excommunicating 
Luther. Luther publicly burnt the bull of excommunication. 

This was in December 1520; seven weeks later the diet of 
the empire met at Worms. Luther was summoned to Worms 
to answer for himself; he came under the protec- Tlie Diet 
tion of his own prince, the Elector Frederick of of Worms, 
Saxony. The populace was on his side, and some 15 lm 
of the princes. The majority of the latter, with the emperor, 
who wanted the pope's alliance, were against him. Luther 
stood boldly by what he had said, and refused to retract 
anything. Lest he should be captured by his enemies, and 
treated after the manner of Huss, on his departure his own 
friends kidnapped him, and hid him in the Wartburg, where 
he spent his time in translating the Bible into German. Charles 
procured from the diet, and issued, the Edict of Worms, which 
placed Luther under the ban as a heretic. But the emperor 
was immediately occupied with his French war; the princes 
in general did not care to enforce the edict. The extravagances 
of some of Luther's followers enabled him to appear again 
publicly as a moderating influence ; it seemed that the princes 
would be won over to the cause of the Reformation. 

Two risings brought a change. The knights, who had no 
political power in the empire, rose to assert themselves, partly 
against the Church, and partly against the princes. The Knights' 
They were completely defeated, but the identifica- War. 
tion of their cause with the Reformation turned the princes 
against it. Immediately afterwards there was a great rising of 
peasants, whose demands at the present day Tn e Peasants' 
scarcely seem unreasonable. To the princes they War - 
appeared unendurable. The insurrection developed into a 
widespread war, and the peasants were suppressed, but not 
till they themselves had been guilty of wild deeds of violence. 



248 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

The peasant leaders had also raised the cry of religion; 
although Luther denounced them in unmeasured terms, and 
gave his whole support to the enforcement of law, the whole 
movement discredited the Reformation as being anarchical in 
its tendencies. On the other hand, the emperor and the 
pope were now in a state of keen antagonism. A diet, held 
at Speier or Spires, practically revoked the Edict of Worms, 
and left the settlement of religion in each state to its own prince. 
Charles, however, had no sooner obtained the mastery over 
the pope, and come to terms with him, than he made clear his 
The Protest intention of returning to his earlier attitude. The 
of Speier. protest issued by the Lutheran leaders gave to 

their party the title of Protestants. The Protestants then drew up 
their own creed in the confession of Augsburg, and formed the 
league of Schmalkald in their own defence in 1530. But hostilities 
were for the time deferred by the advance from the east of the 
Turks, who were actually threatening Vienna. To the princes the 
Reformation had already meant the suppression of monasteries, 
and secularisation of Church lands — that is, their appropriation to 
the state, chiefly, though not exclusively, for educational purposes. 
Meanwhile Switzerland had acted in something after the 
same fashion as Germany. The doctrines of the Swiss reformers 
were by no means identical with those of Luther, 
who denounced the Swiss leader Zwingli with great 
vigour. The Swiss had arrived among themselves at a com- 
promise, under which each canton was left to settle its own 
affairs. In Denmark and in Sweden the governments success- 
fully imposed Protestantism on their respective countries, not 
so much from any strength of religious conviction on the part 
of the rulers, or of religious fervour on the part of the people, as 
because the nobles in the one case and the impoverished state 
treasury in the other thus found a warrant for dispossessing the 
Church of its property. 

The advance of the Turks against Vienna was the natural 
outcome of the expansion of their power in the early years of 

the century. Their sultan Selim had resumed the 
2, The Turks. . 

aggressive policy, which for a time had been m 

abeyance. He re-established his dominion over Persia, over 



Switzerland. 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 249 

Syria and Palestine, and over Egypt, where the rule of the 
Mamelukes was overthrown ; and he compelled the last de- 
scendant of the Abbasid kaliphs to yield the 
kaliphate to him, thus claiming for himself the 
spiritual as well as the secular supremacy over the Mohammedan 
world, though this supremacy was not recognised by the Shiites 
or by sundry other sects. His fleets gave him possession of 
the African ports in the Mediterranean, and Christendom was 
still too much occupied with its own quarrels to do more than 

talk about arming against the Turk. Selim's „ , . 

r, 1 • 1 ^/r ■> Suleiman. 

successor, Suleiman the Magnificent, capturea 

Belgrade on the Danube, where John Hunyadi had stayed the 

Turkish advance half a century before ; and when, after a long 

siege and a heroic defence, he mastered Rhodes, hitherto 

successfully held as a Christian outpost of the Knights of St. 

John, Western Europe did nothing to save it. Half Hungary 

was inclined to accept the Turkish sovereignty; and Lewis, the 

last Polish King of Hungary and Bohemia, fell in a desperate 

struggle in which the Turks were victorious at Mohacs. The 

Crown of Hungary and Bohemia passed to Ferdinand of Austria, 

the brother of Charles v. Suleiman warned him that Vienna 

was doomed. In 1528 Suleiman appeared before its walls with 

a vast army ; yet the vigour of the defence, small though the 

garrison was, compelled him to raise the siege. The disunion 

of the empire continued to prevent the organisation of the 

counter-attack, which circumstances demanded, but the Turks 

were unable to make themselves masters of additional territory, 

although they were actually dominant over the greater part of 

Hungary. 

A check was given to the Turks. Charles v. defeated their 

corsair admiral, Chaireddin Barbarossa, and took possession of 

Tunis ; but the French king sought this opportunity Charles v. 

for forming alliances with every possible enemy of and the 

the emperor, including the Grand Turk himself, Turks> 

the German Protestant princes, and King Henry of England, 

who was carrying out his own ideas of a reformation in this 

country. But the German princes and Henry regarded the 

friendly offers of Francis with suspicion. The intrigues, 



250 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

hostilities, and reconciliations, which followed for a time, 
need not be recorded; but in 1541 Charles felt himself free 
to lead a mighty fleet against Algiers. The fleet was shattered 
by storms, and so one more blow against the advancing Turk 
was spoilt. 

The disaster again moved Francis to make war upon his 
rival. There was another French war, in which Charles got 
Charles the support of England. Charles and Henry each 

and Francis, declared that the other had played him false ; and 
finally Charles made on his own account a peace with France, 
which, in actual fact, made no difference to the possessions of 
either power. Almost immediately afterwards both Francis of 
France and Henry viii. of England died. 

Between the Turks and the French king, Charles had hitherto 
been quite unable to risk a civil war in Germany. He had been 
3. Charles obliged to compromise with the Protestants at the 
and the Pacification of Nuremberg, after the formation of 

Empire. ^ Q League of Schmalkald. The two religious 

parties continued in a state of latent hostility, which did not be- 
come positively active. What Charles himself wanted was to 
arrive at some compromise which would give the Protestants 
just enough satisfaction to make them cease to be dangerous, at 
least until he could feel secure against external attacks. This 
object he attempted to achieve at the Diet of Ratisbon, in 1541. 
Ratisbon ^ s to tne questions which vexed theologians he 

Conference, was probably completely indifferent, but he wished 
1541, Germany to be united and authority to be respected. 

The conference then was held at Ratisbon, at which both 
parties were represented by the men who were most conciliatory, 
and were disposed to go furthest in the direction of compromise. 
The conference was a failure, nevertheless ; in plain terms the 
gulf could not be bridged ; the reconciliation of creeds was im- 
possible. Charles seems to have made up his mind at this stage, 
first that the Reformation must be crushed, and secondly that 
he must wait till he could crush it once and for all by a sudden 
and unexpected blow. For the moment he confirmed the treaty 
of Nuremberg, and the Protestants thought that their future was 
secured. 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 251 

The emperor's opportunity came when he had made his peace 
with France, and when Luther died ; for Luther had at all times 
been most determined in his advocacy of peace. 
Charles's object was to break up the League of 
Schmalkald which appeared too dangerous politically even in the 
eyes of some of the Protestant princes. Its chiefs were Philip 
of Hesse and the Elector of Saxony; but the Duke The 
Maurice of Saxony, and the Elector of Brandenburg, Scnmalkaldic 
both Protestants, sided with the emperor. Suddenly ar * 
Charles put the Protestant leaders to the ban of the empire. 
Duke Maurice attacked the Elector of Saxony. The elector and 
Philip of Hesse were both taken prisoner, and the electorate was 
transferred to Maurice. Charles was completely triumphant. 

But as before the triumph of Charles alarmed his own allies, 
and Pope Paul 11. became his enemy. Believing himself irre- 
sistible, Charles now on his own responsibility formulated what 
was called the Interim of Augsburg, a religious system which 
was to be observed until a religious settlement could be arrived 
at by a general council of the Church. It was intended to con- 
ciliate both parties, whereas both were disgusted by it. At the 
same time he was able to force upon the diet a modification 
of the Imperial Constitution, which gave him the entire control 
of the Imperial Chamber of Justice. A policy of Imperial ab- 
solutism in civil and religious matters alike was Maurice 
revealed, with the instant effect of arousing a new of Saxony. 
opposition. For the moment the emperor could enforce his own 
will. But Maurice of Saxony, to whom he had owed his success 
against the League of Schmalkald, had other views. Charles 
sought to push his victory by procuring the election of his own 
son Philip as his successor on the Imperial throne; but to this 
his own brother Ferdinand, who claimed the succession for him- 
self, was stubbornly opposed. Maurice entered into a secret 
agreement not only with the Protestant princes, but also with the 
French King Henry 11. He was already in command of a large 
army, as the emperor's leading supporter ; suddenly, he turned it 
against the emperor himself. Charles was taken completely by 
surprise, and had to flee for his life, giving his brother Ferdinand 
authority to treat on his behalf. In accordance with the terms 



252 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

of the agreement with Maurice, Henry of France seized Metz, 
from which it was found impossible to eject him ; his success 
was of the utmost importance for future conflicts between France 
and Germany. 

Charles was obliged to accept the Pacification of Passau, which 
secured the Protestant states in their Protestantism, and again 
Pacification placed the control of the Imperial Chamber of 
of Passau. Justice with the diet. The Peace of Passau was 
confirmed by the Peace of Augsburg. A clause however was 
added, under protest from the Lutherans, called 
the Ecclesiastical Reservation, which provided 
that if any prelate went over to the Reformed Church he 
should at the same time resign, so that the ecclesiastical 
territories would remain unaffected. It is to be further remarked 
that no rights were secured to adherents of the reformed religion 
except the Protestants proper, that is to say the Lutherans. The 
general principle of the Pacification however was that each prince 
could enforce his own religion within his own territories. 

The struggle so far has appeared to be one for the domination 
or the equality of Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism, but 
4 Progress other important elements had already been intro- 
ofthe duced in the Reformation. The Swiss reformers 

Reformation. were - n di sa g reeme nt with the Lutherans on many 
important points of doctrine, and even among the Swiss there 
were two divisions. The dominant party was that at whose head 
Calvinists was J onn Calvin, himself a Frenchman, who had 
and become a sort of dictator in the Canton of Geneva. 

Lutherans. Calvinism, not Lutheranism, had taken root in 
France as well as in Switzerland, in Scotland, in some parts of 
Germany, and in the Low Countries. England had followed a 
line of its own, which was neither Lutheran nor Calvinist but 
borrowed some elements from both schools. This disunion 
among the reformers afterwards stood seriously in the way of 
their presenting a solid front to Roman Catholic aggression. 

On the other hand there was within the Roman Church an 
active movement for reformation, a revived religious fervour 
which found expression partly in a school which was honestly 
anxious for reconciliation with the reformers who were in open 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 253 

revolt. Beside these were the no less sincere enthusiasts, 

Ignatius Loyola and his comrades, who founded the Society 

of Tesus, popularly known as the Tesuits, a mili- 

. Tlie Jesuits 

tant missionary organisation which was to play a 

tremendously active part as soon as it became finally certain 

that reconciliation was impossible. 

But almost from the beginning there had been demands for 
a General Council of the Church to bring the religious antagon- 
isms to a settlement. Every one of the interests concerned, how- 
ever, desired a council to be held only under conditions which 
would secure the victory of its own particular views, a General 
The Protestants insisted that they should stand on Council, 
equal terms with the adherents of the papacy, while the popes 
required the unqualified recognition of their own supremacy. 
It was obvious that whatever country the council should be 
held in, the decisions of the council would be materially in- 
fluenced thereby. The emperor wanted it in German territory, 
the popes in papal territory, while France and England objected 
to both. At last the council was actually summoned at Trent, 
and over a period of some twenty years met at council of 
intervals sometimes at Trent and sometimes at Trent. 
Bologna. But from the outset it became evident that Protes- 
tantism would have no voice in its decisions, whether or no con- 
cessions might be made in some respects to Protestant opinion. 
We may anticipate by remarking that when the Council of Trent 
did come to an end in 1563, it had succeeded in defining Roman 
Catholic doctrine, but had set up an insurmountable barrier be- 
tween Romanism on one side and every one of the Reformed 
Churches on the other. 

In England, as we have remarked, the Reformation took a 
course of its own. An undercurrent of Lollardy had survived 
from the days of Wycliffe, but the English Reforma- He vm 
tion was not the work of Lollards. From time and the 
immemorial, the secular authorities had resisted the Reformation - 
claims of the Church to exercise an authority independent of 
their own. English ecclesiastics had sided with the Crown 
against the papacy or with the papacy against the Crown, mainly 
with a view to the maintenance of their own privileges and 



254 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

immunities, whether these were threatened by the Crown or by 

the pope. Henry vm. regarded himself as a theological expert 

and a champion of orthodoxy, and he would have nothing to say 

to the reformed doctrines. But the pope would not annul his 

marriage with Katharine of Aragon, since Charles v. her nephew 

championed her cause. Therefore Henry resolved to take the 

bull by the horns and repudiate papal authority. Therein he 

found support from bishop and clergy, though not from monks 

and friars. When he proceeded to declare himself head of the 

Church, the clergy carried protest as far as they dared, but were 

The compelled to submit. The king also wanted money, 

Monasteries. an d had exhausted the normal means of raising it. 

The Church was enormously wealthy, and he went on to despoil 

it, suppressing the monasteries and appropriating their lands on 

the pretext, for which there was evidence in some cases, that most 

of them were not seminaries of religion, but hot-beds of vice. 

There his so-called reformation stopped. But the attack on the 

power and political wealth of the Church inevitably sapped its 

authority, and prepared the way for an attack on the theological 

doctrines on which the claims of priestly authority rested. 

Henry was no sooner dead than the council which governed 

the country in the minority of his son Edward vi. introduced 

changes in doctrines and ceremonial derived from 
Reformation ° . 

an( i Lollardy, or from the Lutherans, or from the bwiss 

Reaction. schools of reformers ; the clergy for the most part 

accepted the situation. But the young king died, and was suc- 
ceeded by his elder half-sister Mary. She was a fervent devotee 
of the old faith, restored the old doctrines and the old cere- 
monial again with the general acquiescence of the clergy, and 
then began a persecution of the Protestants, in the course of 
which some three hundred were burnt at the stake, including the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer. The persecution turned 
the scale, for hitherto it had been extremely doubtful whether 
popular opinion was on the Protestant or the Roman Catholic 
side; and when Mary was succeeded by Elizabeth in 1558 the 
country on the whole welcomed a reversion to the 
Elizabeth. p ro testantism of the last reign. Incidentally, the 
Reformation in England had had the effect of creating in the 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 255 

country a new political power, since the distribution of the mon- 
astic lands had brought into being a large new class of landed 
gentry which greatly strengthened the Commons House of 
Parliament. 

The Peace of Augsburg left Charles practically defeated in 
all his ambitions. He had failed in his attempt to make him- 
self, as emperor, the real master of Germany. He Abdication 
had failed to suppress Protestantism, as he had of Charles V. 
failed to effect a religious compromise. He had failed to 
secure the succession in the empire to his son. He had married 
that son to the English Queen Mary in the hope of thus adding 
another kingdom to the dominions of his house, and in this 
too he had failed since there was no offspring of the marriage. 
There was every probability that Scotland would be attached 
to France, as he had hoped to attach England to Spain, by the 
approaching marriage of the French Dauphin to the young 
Queen of Scots. In 1556 Charles abdicated, and his son Philip 
succeeded to the throne of Spain, to all his possessions in Italy, 
and to the Burgundian inheritance. His brother Ferdinand was 
in due course elected emperor, and Charles himself died two 
years later. In the interval England, involved by the Spanish 
marriage in a war with France, had lost Calais. Two months 
after the death of Charles, Elizabeth was Queen of England, 
and her long contest with her Spanish brother-in-law began. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE NEW WORLD ; MEXICO AND PERU 

The reign of Charles v. is also the real period of the expansion 
of the Spanish power in America; the period when the 
ancient native civilisations were annihilated. Mexico was 
invaded in the year of his accession, and Peru was conquered 
thirty years later. Columbus and his followers had occupied 
islands, and had begun to settle on the mainland or Spanish 
Main as it became afterwards to be called ; but the Pacific was 
first seen in 15 13 and first crossed in 1521. 

It is at this point then that America comes in contact with 
the general current of recorded history. This is therefore a 
convenient point for sketching the past history of the continent. 

No satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at as to the origin 
of the races which peopled it ; whether they sprang up separately 
in America, or penetrated thither from North-east Asia, spreading 
1. The Races on to Greenland and southwards to Patagonia. In 
of America. any case, as philologists have discovered no less 
than a thousand varieties in the languages spoken there, it is quite 
certain that the human race must have been in occupation of 
America for an enormous length of time. 

With the exception of the Esquimaux in the Arctic regions, 
all the native peoples are referred to as Indians, simply because 
the discoverers of America imagined that it was India that they 
had reached. In North America the bulk of the peoples 
belonged to the group of Redskins or Red Indians; the 
southern peoples vary considerably in colour, some of them 
being extremely dark ; but they appear to have no connection 
whatever with the negro races of our own hemisphere. Long 

256 



THE NEW WORLD; MEXICO AND PERU 257 

as they had been in occupation of America, they were some 
thousands of years behind the inhabitants of the other hemi- 
sphere in civilisation. In the year 1500 of our era American 
the most advanced nations were at a stage compar- Civilisation, 
able to that of Egyptians or Babylonians three or four thousand 
years earlier ; of the rest none were more advanced than Celts 
or Teutons when we meet them in history for the first time, 
and many were in a far more primitive state. The civilised 
peoples whose dominions are dignified with the name of empires 
were all to be found in what we now call Mexico, Central 
America, and Tropical South America west of the seventieth 
degree of longitude. Even in these regions it is hardly pro- 
bable that anything deserving the name of civilisation had been 
in existence for so much as a thousand years. 

It does not appear that what can be called records hitherto 
discovered go back beyond the tenth century of our era. About 
that time there existed a dynasty in Central central 
America called the Toltecs. Somewhat less America. 
shadowy than the Toltecs are the Mayas, who certainly built 
large towns and great temples covered with elaborate carvings, 
which carry with them suggestions of early Egypt more than 
of anything else in the other hemisphere. The Spaniards 
found the Maya civilisation still in existence in Central 
America, but the advancing power was that of the Mexican 
Aztecs. 

In the middle of the fifteenth century a great Mexican 
kingdom was established by Montezuma 1. It was this 
Mexican kingdom which was overthrown by Cortes in 1520. 
To the south beyond the Isthmus were the kingdoms of the 
Chibchas, whose civilisation was still extremely primitive and 
barbarous. The Chibcha region corresponds roughly to the 
modern state of Colombia. 

It was in Peru, however, further to the south, that the greatest 
advance had been made in the direction of civilisation. Here 
the Incas had ruled probably for three or four 
hundred years. Starting from Cuzco the Incas 
gradually extended a dominion by methods extraordinary for 
their humanity among primitive peoples. They came in arms, 

R 



258 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

but they sought to extend their rule not as destroyers but as 
benefactors. Wherever they went they brought with them a 
highly organised system of government ; and they imposed 
their own rule as that of a superior race, the children of the 
Sun, a caste who reserved to themselves knowledge and 
authority, but used it for the benefit of their subjects — a 
claim which their subjects found to be entirely warranted. 

The natives whom the Spaniards found in the islands and on 
their first visits to the mainland were exceedingly primitive, 
2. Spanish Dut they heard rumours of nations of a different 
Conquests. sort dwelling inland. The Spanish governor, Diego 
Velasquez, despatched an expedition to Mexico under Fernando 
. Cortes. The party of four hundred Europeans 

accompanied by half that number of natives had 
with them a few horses and a few guns, horses and guns being alike 
unknown in America. The fame of the Spaniards went before 
them. The ruler of Mexico was Montezuma n., who sent envoys 
to meet the strangers. Cortes announced that he had come from 
a great monarch in the east to visit the Emperor of Mexico, and 
desired permission to do so. Montezuma sent him presents, but 
forbade him to visit the capital. 

Nevertheless, Cortes advanced. Some resistance was offered 
by intervening tribes, but the superiority of the Spanish arms 
was demonstrated at once. Cortes went on his way, and 
Montezuma did not venture to resist his entry into the city of 
Mexico. The king professed to welcome the strangers, and 
while refusing to adopt Christianity offered homage and tribute 
to the great eastern monarch whose servant Cortes declared 
himself to be. Evidence, however, that he was meditating 
treachery warranted Cortes in assuming control of the king's 
Cortes and person. In the temporary absence of Cortes his 
Montezuma, lieutenant Alverado, believing that the Mexicans 
were about to attack the Spaniards in the course of a great 
native festival, chose to strike first and attack the natives him- 
self. The result was that Cortes on his return found the 
position of the Spaniards to be extremely dangerous. He 
compelled Montezuma to show himself to the populace, and 
proclaim his favour towards the Spaniards ; but this only turned 



THE NEW WORLD; MEXICO AND PERU 259 

the rage of the people on Montezuma himself, who was so 
injured by missiles that he died a few days later. 

Cortes was obliged to cut his way out of Mexico with his 
little force, which suffered severely before it could extricate itself 
from the overwhelming numbers of the enemy. He succeeded, 
however, in attracting the support of native peoples, who had 
no love for the Mexican dominion ; and was presently able to 
return to the attack and force his way into the capital, where 
he established himself and organised a government with great 
ability in the name of the King of Spain. From this time the 
Spanish supremacy in Mexico was secured. 

A very different man from the chivalrous Cortes was the 

unscrupulous adventurer, Francisco Pizarro, who accomplished 

the conquest of Peru in 1^3. Rumours had 

. j^*j Pizarro 

reached the Spaniards not only of a civilised 

nation, but of boundless wealth, silver and gold without limit, 
existing in the far west. Pizarro and other adventurers went 
on a private expedition, made up their minds that the prospect 
was good, and entered into a partnership to exploit the country. 
Pizarro hastened back to Spain, obtained a commission from 
the emperor, and returned to the west. Thus armed he was 
able to collect and equip a tiny force of about two hundred 
men, and with these he made his way down the west coast to 
Guayaquil. 

The empire of the Incas was at the moment suffering from 
a disputed succession. The legitimate heir, Huascar, had been 
displaced by his brother Atahualpa. The arrival of the tiny body 
of Spaniards on Peruvian territory created no alarm, and 
Atahualpa sent messages inviting them to his presence. He 
received them on their approach, and the next day conquest 
came in procession to meet them in their camp, of Peru. 
All the conditions favoured the daring projects of the Spaniards, 
who seized the person of the unsuspecting Inca, while their guns 
and horsemen dealt slaughter among the hosts of the Peruvian 
army which, encamped hard by, hastened to the monarch's 
rescue. Atahualpa offered vast treasures as ransom, which the 
Spaniards agreed to accept. But, in the meantime, they dis- 
covered the existence of the other claimant to the throne, 



2 6o THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

Huascar. Atahualpa found out that they were intriguing with 
him, and ordered his execution. Pizarro, having got the ransom, 
turned on Atahualpa and executed him as an usurper who had 
murdered his brother. 

Nothing is more remarkable than the completeness with 
which this small band crushed every attempt at resistance on 
the part of the Peruvians, in spite of their possession of a 
highly organised army. Steel, gunpowder and cavalry, and 
the defensive armour of the Spaniards, proved utterly irre- 
sistible against a people who, greatly as they had advanced in 
civilisation, had not learnt the use even of iron. There was 
no lack of valour among the Peruvians, but they found them- 
selves absolutely powerless against the weapons of the conquerors. 
Thus was Peru also brought into subjection to the Spaniards. 

The Spaniards extended their dominion to the Californian 
peninsula, and took possession of the mouth of the La Plata 
The Spanish River on the south-east of South America ; but 
Expansion. they very soon learnt that ships containing treasure 
were unsafe unless they voyaged in companies, and the practice 
began of sending what was called the Plate Fleet home from 
South America at regular intervals. The great emporium was 
the city of Cartagena on the Caribbean Sea, near what we may 
call the stalk on which South America hangs like a pear. The 
treasures of Peru were brought thither by way of the Isthmus of 
Panama. In this new world of which they had taken possession, 
Queen Isabella had originally done her best to safeguard the 
natives against maladministration and against oppression, but 
with little effect. Practically they became merely slaves ; and 
since they proved physically unfit for hard labour, and began 
dying out with great rapidity, while there was no European 
working population, the practice was instituted at an early stage 
of carrying off ship-loads of the hardier negroes from Africa to 
become slaves in the Spanish Indies. 

With the exception of the Brazils bestowed on Portugal by 
the pope, the Spaniards had a monopoly of America, as the 
other Portuguese had a monopoly of the Indian Ocean 

Voyagers. and the Spice Islands of the Western Pacific. 
Both countries governed their colonies on the theory that they 



THE NEW WORLD; MEXICO AND PERU 261 

were the private property of the Crown. No other European 
powers had at present come in competition with them. Further 
to the north the Cabots, Genoese in the employment of the 
English government, had discovered Labrador, probably before 
the Spaniards actually reached the American continent ; but 
though voyages of exploration were made, there were no 
attempts at settlement. English and French sailors, however, 
both began to visit the Spanish settlements for trading purposes ; 
and before long the Spanish government imposed trade regula- 
tions on the colonies, with the direct object of excluding these 
interlopers. Neither French nor English were disposed to 
admit the right of Spaniards or Portuguese to shut them out of 
the New World altogether, or to recognise the validity of the 
laws which excluded them ; and hence there presently arose 
in the western seas something like a state of perpetual war, 
which in a strictly legal sense was plain piracy when England 
was nominally at peace with Spain, but was never regarded as 
such by any one except the aggrieved government. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE ERA OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION 

During the reign of Philip n. the power of Spain was at its 
height. With the abdication of Charles v. it was separated 
from the empire; though not from Burgundy, 
including the Netherlands. But it had the 
supreme power in Italy ; it held possession of the New World ; 
and Philip, during his reign, annexed for himself the Crown of 
The Spanish Portugal, and with it all the Portuguese posses- 
Dominion, sions. The Spanish fleets and ships were the 
largest in the world; the Spanish soldiers had the highest 
reputation ; and for a time at least Spanish armies were com- 
manded by a military genius of the first rank, the Duke of 
Parma. The defect of the great empire lay in the scattered 
character of its possessions. Spanish troops could reach the 
Netherlands or Italy only by sea ; France interposed by land. 
The empire was not homogeneous ; it comprised in Europe 
three entirely distinct and antagonistic nationalities, one of 
which detested, while another did not love, the supremacy of 
Spain. Spanish dominion depended on the mastery of the 
sea, and during the reign that mastery was challenged both 
by England and by Philip's own revolting subjects in the 
Netherlands. 

Philip regarded himself as the champion of the Church 

and the scourge of heresy. To stamp out heresy was his 

it mission. The great engine of persecution was the 

ecclesiastical court of the Inquisition, which was 

established throughout his dominion ; and he entirely declined to 

limit its operations. Vast as were his resources his government 

262 



THE ERA OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION 263 

was always inefficient, because he was incapable of placing 

confidence in any man, especially any man of ability. His 

aims were grandiose and far-reaching, his methods slow and 

ponderous. He never made up his mind to do the right 

thing until, owing to his delay, it had become the wrong 

thing. 

Philip intended to crush England; when he died his fleets 

were at the mercy of the English sailors. He meant to crush 

the Netherlands : when he died the victory of the . „ . 

xt 1 1 i • 1 • 1 r ,., n His Failure. 

Netherlands, in their struggle for liberty, was all 

but assured. He wished to dominate France, and when he 
died the Spanish party in France had almost ceased to exist. 
The one thing that he did actually accomplish was to make 
the Crown absolutely supreme in the dominions which remained 
under his sway ; and to this perhaps it may be added that he had 
succeeded in convincing himself and the rest of the world so 
thoroughly of the magnitude of his power, that politicians con- 
tinued to dread Spain long after she had ceased to be capable 
of striking any effective blow. 

It was fortunate for Philip that during this period France was 
perpetually prevented by her internal discords from depriving 

him of the European leadership. The direct line „ 

. France, 

of the house of Valois ended, like the direct line 

of the old house of Capet, with the reign of a series of brothers, 

none of whom left children. During the greater part of three 

successive reigns the dominant personality in politics was that 

of the Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici, who, ignored by her 

husband Henry 11. while he lived, bided her time and reigned 

while his sons wore the French Crown,. To keep the power in 

her own hands she persistently played off the Catholics and the 

Huguenots, as the French Protestants were called, against each 

other, that she might prevent the chiefs of either party from 

becoming masters of the state. The century was almost at its 

close before the perpetual embroilments of the two religious 

factions were brought to an end; and it might be said that 

for five and thirty years a civil war was either actually 

going on, or had just been stopped, or was just going to 

begin again. 



264 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

In Germany the religious strife was settled for the time being 

by the Peace of Augsburg. Under emperors who were officially 

orthodox Catholics, but adopted a liberal attitude 
Germany. '. f. 

towards Protestantism, a critical struggle between 

the two faiths was deferred; to be then complicated by the 

Calvinism of sundry Protestant princes which alienated from 

them the Lutherans, who imagined that their own position 

had been secured by the Peace of Augsburg. In the meantime 

the effect was to cause Germany to stand aside altogether 

from the religious conflicts raging in the west of Europe. 

In Spain and in Italy Protestantism was practically non- 
existent i in England and Scotland its victory was practically 
English secured before Charles v. had been dead three years ; 

Frotes- secured at least so long as Elizabeth should reign 

in England, for the plain reason that in the eyes of 
English Catholics not Elizabeth but Mary Stuart was the legitimate 
queen. For Elizabeth's legitimacy depended on the validity of 
the marriage of her mother Anne Boleyn to Henry viii., whereas 
the pope had pronounced that marriage invalid. There were no 
other legitimate descendants of Henry viii., who had no younger 
brother; while Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was the grandchild 
of his eldest sister. Hence Elizabeth had no choice but to rely 
on the loyalty of her Protestant subjects. This necessity for her 
Protestantism became all the more marked when a papal bull 
issued by Pope Pius v. absolved the Catholics of their allegiance 
to her while authorising them to pretend loyalty. 

In Scotland, on the other hand, Protestantism won, partly 

from its appeal to the national instinct for independence, partly 

* ±.* * because the bulk of the nobles were at feud with the 

Scotland. 

Roman Catholic priesthood, who had for long been 

the mainstay of the royal authority in its struggle with them, and 

of whose property they intended to possess themselves. When 

Francis n. of France died after a reign of a few months, and his 

young widow Mary Queen of Scots returned from France 

where she had been brought up to her own country, she found 

the two most powerful men in the kingdom to be the advanced 

Calvinistic reformer John Knox and her half-brother James 

Stuart, afterwards Earl of Murray, the leader of the reform 



THE ERA OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION 265 

party. The tragic story of her reign, the ill-fated marriage with 
her cousin Darnley, his murder and her marriage with his 
murderer, her enforced abdication in favour of her infant son, 
the rally of her supporters and her flight to England, form a 
painful and picturesque episode in Scottish history. For nearly 
twenty years she remained a prisoner in England, the centre of 
every plot for the removal of Elizabeth and for the restoration 
of a Romanist monarchy. Meanwhile the Protestant lords 
governed Scotland, and in England Romanism was more and 
more identified, both by the government and in popular opinion, 
with disloyalty. 

For fifty years after the death of Charles v. the interest of 
European history is fixed upon the struggle between Spain and 
the Netherlands, between Spain and England, and centre of 
between Catholics and Huguenots in France, interest. 
These three struggles are perpetually overlapping each other 
and becoming involved together, while in all three the pre- 
dominant element is sometimes religious and sometimes 
political. 

In France throughout the reigns of Francis 1. and Henry 11. 
the Crown had constantly repressed the Huguenots while it was 
quite ready to ally itself with Protestants against 2. France : 
Catholics abroad. On the other hand many of the The Hugue- 
nobles were Huguenots by conviction, and many 
others hoped to gain power for themselves by supporting the 
Huguenots. The Bourbon or Navarre branch of the royal 
family which stood next in succession to the throne after the 
sons of Henry 11. took the Huguenot side, on which the greatest 
name was that of Admiral Coligny. At the head of the other 
party was the powerful family of Guise, whose chief was the most 
popular and successful soldier in France. It was for a long 
time the policy of Catherine de Medici, the Queen Mother, to 
prevent either party from being crushed, lest the control of the 
government should pass from her own hands into those 
of its chiefs. Foreign policy, however, was dominated by 
the fear of Spain, and therefore by an inclination to support 
the Protestant powers and Protestant rulers in antagonism to 
Spain. 



266 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

In the Netherlands also the question had two aspects. The 
north-eastern group of the states over which Philip of Spain 

3. The ruled had embraced the Calvinistic Protestantism ; 
Netherlands, the south-western group were in the main strongly 
Catholic. Philip's resolution to stamp out heresy was a griev- 
ance only in the Protestant states. But Philip was no less 
determined to enforce his own system of a centralised govern- 
ment in the hands of Spanish officials, and this was an alien 
tyranny in the eyes of all Netherlanders alike. The Catholic 
nobles themselves viewed with extreme disfavour, as an encroach- 
ment upon their own jurisdiction, the power of the ecclesiastical 
court of the Inquisition, which had been instituted here as 
elsewhere for the suppression of heresy. 

Fierce popular insurrections took place, and while the nobles 
were anxious to keep these in check they were equally anxious 
to preserve their own traditional liberties. Their leaders were 
the Catholic Count Egmont and the Calvinist Prince William of 
Orange and Nassau, whose best-known title is taken from a 
principality in the south of France. Philip entrusted the govern- 
^2 ment of the Netherlands to the Duke of Alva, who 

established a bloodthirsty military tyranny ; and, 
besides carrying on a savage religious persecution, imposed 
intolerable financial burdens on Catholics as well as Protestants, 
and executed the popular Count Egmont. Even the Emperor 
Maximilian n., Ferdinand's successor, protested in vain. The 
Netherlands rose in revolt, but Alva was too strong, and instituted a 
reign of terror which seemed to crush out all resistance. But it also 
bade fair to crush out all prosperity. Again the Netherlands rose 
in revolt in 1572, and maintained the struggle until, nearly forty 
years later, the northern provinces achieved their independence. 

Meanwhile there had been in France two civil wars of religion 
and two pacifications. The first contest was terminated by the 

4. France : Peace of Amboise, which granted a considerable 
Wars of degree of toleration to the Huguenots. But a meet- 
ing between Catherine de Medici and Alva gave 

rise to a belief that the two were agreed upon a general destruc- 
tion of the reformed religion. x\gain war broke out, and again 
it was terminated by a treaty confirming the Peace of Amboise. 



THE ERA OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION 267 

But the peace was only a truce. Twelve months later the war 
was again in full swing. But Catherine, perceiving that Philip of 
Spain meant to turn the Guise party to his own uses, began 
to incline to the Protestant side. Again a treaty confirmed the 
toleration granted before to the Huguenots, and Huguenot in- 
fluence now predominated with the young King Charles ix. 
The Queen Mother again saw power slipping from her own 
grasp. In 1572 an immense number of Huguenots were 
assembled in the fanatically Catholic city of Paris to celebrate 
the wedding of young Henry of Navarre, the head gt. Bartholo- 
of the Bourbons, with the king's youngest sister. me-w "- 
With the connivance of Catherine, the Guises organised a mas- 
sacre of the Huguenots on the night of St. Bartholomew. Some 
twenty thousand Protestants were slaughtered, including Coligny, 
and similar massacres followed in other parts of the country. 

The pope celebrated the event by a service of thanksgiving, 
and Philip of Spain rejoiced ; but the world stood aghast. The 
hope that France under a Huguenot regime would support the 
revolt of the Netherlands was destroyed. But Catherine saw 
that whether intentionally or not she had gone too far in sur- 
passing Alva's atrocities. The Huguenots began to 
recover ground ; and three years after the massacre, 
when Henry in. had succeeded Charles ix., the Edict of Poictiers 
once more granted a degree of toleration to the Huguenots, 
after which the pacification endured for seven years. It is to be 
observed that while King Henry was himself a bitter Catholic he 
was on ill terms with the Guises, and his younger brother Francis 
of Anjou associated himself with the moderate leaders of the 
Huguenots. When Francis died in 1594 the Huguenot Henry 
of Navarre became heir-presumptive to the French throne. 

The recall of Alva, and the effect on public sentiment of the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, brought about a less savage regime 
in the Netherlands, and the consequent abstinence of the 
southern states from the revolt which the northern 5. Nether- 
states maintained with a magnificent obstinacy, lands: 
They were determined to hold out to the last in revolt^ 
their demands for religious freedom, the restoration 
of the old form of government, and the withdrawal of the 



268 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

Spanish troops, none of which Philip would concede. But a 
sudden outbreak of the Spanish troops, known as 'The Spanish 
Fury,' once again roused the whole country, and north and south 
joined in the pacification of Ghent to renew their demands for 
freedom. Alva's successor was dead. He was followed by John 
of Austria, Philip's half-brother, who saw the necessity for 
making concessions which again parted the Catholic from the 
Protestant states. 

On his death, within two years, the governorship was given to 
Alexander of Parma, Philip's nephew, who continued the policy 
Alexander of conciliating the Catholic provinces. Systematic- 
of Parma. ally, inch by inch, he proceeded with the subjuga- 
tion of the northern provinces, which still held together in the 
Union of Utrecht under the leadership of the Prince of Orange. 
The united provinces declared their own independence, and 
would have placed themselves under the protectorate of either 
the Queen of England or Francis of Anjou. Elizabeth declined, 
and Anjou played the traitor. Then the great chief William of 
Orange was assassinated. It was well that just at this moment 
Elizabeth's hand was about to be forced, and she was at last 
compelled to make open war against Spain. From 1585 the 
Spaniard had England on his hands as well as the people whom 
we may henceforth call the Dutch. 

Ever since the beginning of Elizabeth's reign she and Philip 
had been covertly at war, though outwardly at peace, each 
6. Spain and desiring to defer an open struggle. Philip wished 
England. to finish off the Netherlands before turning on 

England. Elizabeth hoped to evade a contest altogether by 
delay, while she also knew that with every year England was grow- 
ing stronger and stronger, and Spain was becoming more and 
more exhausted. In the meantime her sailors ignored the 
Spanish trade-laws, and forced their trade on the Spanish 
colonies at the sword's point. The Spaniards were not content 
to treat them as pirates, but handed over the English sailors, 
when they got hold of them, to the Inquisition, to be dealt 
with as heretics. Thus the English regarded themselves as 
champions of the reformed faith, warranted like the Israelites 
of old in despoiling the Egyptians and the Amalekites. With 



THE ERA OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION 269 

a clear conscience they robbed the Spaniards on the Spanish 
Main, and captured their treasure-ships on the high seas. 
Francis Drake sailed round the world, and brought home untold 
treasure. The King of Spain demanded that the ' pirate ' should 
be surrendered to him for justice, and the Queen of England 
replied by knighting him. Philip, and Philip's agents, 
responded by being in the thick of every plot for the 
assassination of Elizabeth and the liberation of Mary Stuart. 
At last matters reached the point at which Eliza- The Armada, 
beth entered into open alliance with the Dutch ; 1588 - 
and, when she had done so, executed Mary Stuart herself as an 
accomplice in the Babington conspiracy for the English queen's 
assassination. Then Philip prepared for a mighty invasion of 
England; in 1588 he despatched the great Armada, which was 
first shattered by the English fleet, and then annihilated by 
storms. From that hour English fleets decisively ruled the 
seas. 

Philip reigned for ten years after the destruction of the 
Armada. He constructed three more Armadas, but all to no 
purpose. The English and Dutch had learnt the p^p^ 
vital principle, forgotten for centuries, that a Schemes 
fighting ship should be a weapon of war and not break down - 
merely a floating barrack for soldiers; consequently, Spanish 
ships could never hold their own against English or Dutch 
ships. In the Netherlands William's son, Maurice of Nassau, 
proved himself a worthy rival of Parma in the art of war, while 
that great commander was perpetually hampered by his master's 
distrust, his lack of supplies, wrong-headed instructions, and 
finally by being twice called upon at a critical moment to turn 
his arms into France. When Parma died the prospects of a 
Spanish victory vanished, though the struggle was still main- 
tained for several years. The war was brought to an end in 
1609 with what practically amounted to an acknowledgment 
of the independence of the United Provinces, those which 
Parma had retained being known for a century to come as the 
Spanish Netherlands. 

There were those in England who would have had Elizabeth 
devote herself to the utter overthrow of Spain, the ruin of her 



270 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

commerce, and the capture of her colonies. But Elizabeth did 
not wish to see Spain ruined; she desired its preservation as 
The Maritime a counterpoise to France. Therefore she succeeded 
War. for the most part in making the war into a sort 

of perpetual raid on the Spanish Plate Fleets, only once or twice 
allowing more serious blows to be struck, and making no attempt 
to appropriate Spanish colonies. 

Walter Ralegh, however, made a series of attempts to plant 
on the northern continent a real colony, which should be the 
English nucleus of a new England beyond the seas, where 

Colonisation. English men and women should make permanent 
homes for themselves, and for their descendants. Ralegh's 
efforts failed; but the idea, as a commercial speculation, took 
root in other minds. When King James of Scotland, the son 
of Mary Stuart, succeeded Elizabeth on the throne of England, 
by right of inheritance, a charter was granted to a mercantile 
company to set up a colony, to which they gave the name 
Virginia, which Ralegh had chosen for his own settlements in 
honour of the Virgin Queen. After many vicissitudes the new 
colony established itself securely, the first of a series, which 
were ultimately to separate from the British Empire and 
form the United States of America. The accession of the 
Scots King James in England united the Crowns of England 
and Scotland, though the two nations were not incorporated 
in the one kingdom of Great Britain till a century later. 

In 1580, on the death of the King of Portugal, Philip claimed 
the succession in right of his mother, excluding the stronger 
claim of the house of Braganza. Portugal was 
thus involved in Philip's wars with the English and 
Dutch, and at the turn of the century the English and Dutch 
both began to make entry into the eastern seas, where hitherto 
Portugal had ruled supreme. From this were to arise the 
English settlements on the Indian coast, whence after a hundred 
and fifty years sprang the British dominion in India and the 
Dutch settlements in the Spice Islands, from which Holland 
derived substantial wealth. 

In France, as was noted above, the death of Francis of Anjou 
left Henry of Navarre heir-presumptive to the French throne, 



7. Portugal. ,, __ ^ u:i: , 



THE ERA OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION 271 

King Henry in. being childless. The Catholic leaders headed 
by the Guises formed what was called the Catholic League, to 
exclude the heretic prince from the succession, g. France: 
on the principle which Philip of Spain was pro- the Succes- 
claiming, that any and every heretic was neces- s1011, 
sarily barred from any throne. In passing we may remark 
that it was on this plea that Philip, who could trace descent 
from our Edward 111., through a sister of our Henry iv., 
pretended that he was the lawful sovereign of England after 
Mary Stuart was beheaded. King Henry in. found himself to 
his own extreme disgust in the hands of Henry, Duke of Guise, 
while Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots took up arms to 
secure the recognition of the Huguenot leader as heir to the throne. 

Hence arose what is called the War of the Three Henries. 
Guise was assassinated on behalf of the king; nine months 
afterwards the king himself was assassinated in Henry IV. 
return, and Henry iv. had to fight for the throne, of France, 
to which he was legitimate heir, against the League. The League 
had no one who could plausibly be proposed as having a 
legitimate title to the French throne, except by setting aside 
the law of male succession and nominating the Spanish Princess 
Isabella, whose mother had been sister of the last three Valois 
kings. Thus the League assumed the appearance of in effect 
proposing to subject France to Philip's control; nor were 
matters improved by the suggestion that the princess should 
marry either one of the Austrian Hapsburgs or one of the 
Guises. Henry iv. made the most of this situation, and before 
very long allowed it to be understood that he was willing to 
satisfy the Catholics by returning to the bosom of the Church 
while securing religious liberty to the Protestants. 

Until then the fortunes of war varied, since Henry's successes 
were counteracted by the intervention of Parma. But when 
Parma died, and Henry definitely declared himself Catholic, 
there was a great accession of Catholics to his side. Philip 
was now fighting to gain the Crown for his own The Bourbon 
daughter, and the League was fighting to put a Dynasty 
Spaniard on the throne. When the Guises obtained establisned - 
terms for themselves Philip's war became hopeless, and the 



272 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

Bourbon dynasty was established on the French throne by the 
Peace of Vervins in 1598. 

Henry had before him the task of settling the religious 
problems, and of reorganising the government and the finances 
ruined by the long civil wars. The first problem was dealt with 
Toleration ^y tne Edict of Nantes, which gave the Huguenots 
and Ahsolu- almost complete religious liberty. The organisa- 

m ' tion of finance was placed in the hands of the able 

and conspicuously honest Sully. Great and successful efforts 
were made to revive both commerce and agriculture, and to 
enforce justice in the administration. But it was inevitable 
that under such circumstances a vigorous king should seek to 
concentrate power in his own hands, and Henry iv. established 
the Bourbon monarchy on that basis of absolutism which was 
to be consummated by Louis xiv. more than half a century after 
his death. 

In Germany the religious truce established at Augsburg was 

showing signs of breaking down some time before the close 

n „ of the sixteenth century. Ferdinand and his 

9. Germany : . J 

The Rival successor Maximilian 11. had both aimed not at 

Religions. religious unity but at mutual toleration by 

Catholics and Protestants. Rudolph 11., who followed them, 

was emphatically anti-Protestant when he did intervene, but 

his political activity was limited. Serious questions however 

arose. The Archbishop of Cologne, one of the Electors, 

became Protestant, and still refused to resign his see, thus 

transferring the Electoral majority from the Catholics to the 

Protestants. But because the archbishop joined not the 

Lutherans but the Calvinists, the Catholics were enabled to win 

a victory and eject the archbishop. The Catholics thus secured 

a majority in the Imperial chamber, and it became evident 

that they were going to press the advantage which they now 

possessed. 

The one hope for Protestantism lay in the union of the 

reformers, but Lutherans and Calvinists were hardly less 

The Approach opposed to each other than to the Catholics. 

of War. Lutheran Saxony suppressed its own Calvinists, 

while the Palatinate was equally emphatic in its Calvinism. In 



THE ERA OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION 273 

1609 matters had assumed so threatening an aspect, and the 
Austrian Hapsburgs were drawing so closely to their Spanish 
kinsmen, that Henry iv. of France was about to head what 
might be called an anti-Hapsburg League when he was 
assassinated, and French influence in Europe was lost for the 
time being under the regency of his widow. The real out- 
break was to come over the question of succession to the 
Crown of Bohemia. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE ERA OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 

Rudolph ii. was succeeded as emperor by his brother Matthias. 
The succession to him was settled upon Ferdinand of Styria, 
l. The Thirty hi s cousin, a prince of ability and vigour, but an 
Years' War. aggressive Catholic. Matthias had succeeded to 
the Crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, but Bohemia claimed 
that the Crown was elective; and being a Protestant country, 
The Crown of Ferdinand's succession there was likely to be dis- 
Bohemia. puted. The Bohemians, however, were surprised 

into electing him as heir. A strong repressive policy was at 
once entered upon, and there was an immediate Protestant 
revolt. Matters were still in the balance when Matthias died. 
Ferdinand secured the Imperial Crown, but at the same time 
Bohemia repudiated its previous decision, deposed Ferdinand, 
and chose for its king Frederick the Elector Palatine, the 
nominal head of the Protestant Union of Germany and the 
son-in-law of James, King of England. The King of Bohemia 
was an elector of the empire; the recognition of Frederick's 
election as king by Bohemia, of which the legality was more 
than doubtful, would give him a double vote, and would 
transfer a vote from the Catholics to the Protestants. The 
Catholic princes at once united against Frederick, while the 
Lutheran princes refused to espouse his cause because he was 
a Calvinist, and also because Ferdinand promised them various 
concessions as the reward of their neutrality. 

Thus began the Thirty Years' War. Within fifteen months 
of his election Frederick was completely routed at the White 
Hill, in Bohemia, and Spanish troops in alliance with Ferdinand 

274 



THE ERA OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 275 

were pouring into the Palatinate from the Spanish Nether- 
lands and Burgundy. Frederick himself had to take refuge in 
Holland. His territories were in the hands of his The War 
enemies, and shortly afterwards he was deprived breaks out. 
of the electoral dignity, which was transferred from the Palat- 
inate to Bavaria, whose King Maximilian was the ablest of all 
the Catholic princes and the most valuable of Ferdinand's 
supporters. Frederick's father-in-law, King James of England, 
refused to support him when he accepted the Crown of Bohemia, 
but was extremely anxious for the recovery of the Palatinate. 
This end, however, he hoped to achieve through the alliance of 
Spain and England, by marrying his son to the Princess of 
Spain ; an entirely futile hope, since Spain was still as zealous 
as ever for the destruction of Protestantism, and had everything 
to gain from the aggrandisement of the Austrian Hapsburg. 
Moreover, the English people did not care greatly about the 
Palatinate, but had a firm conviction that if any one ought to 
be attacked it was Spain, as the natural enemy of Protestantism 
and of England. 

On the other hand the Lutheran princes of Germany were now 
taking alarm at the rapid advance of the Hapsburg power, and 
the severe repression of Protestantism in the conquered territories. 

In France, after the death of Henry iv., the regency was 
reactionary and feeble. As the young King Louis grew up, he 
saw the need of strengthening the central govern- 
ment, which was threatened by the increasing 
independence of the nobles, while the public peace was 
endangered by the reviving friction between Catholics and 
Huguenots. Louis was no master of statecraft, but he had 
the invaluable quality in a king of bestowing his confidence 
where it was deserved. The minister to whom he trusted him- 
self was Cardinal Richelieu. Richelieu's policy was the policy 
of Henry iv. \ a policy of religious toleration, of antagonism to 
the Hapsburgs, and of concentrating power in the hands of the 
Crown. Under his direction France now intervened. The 
intervention was brief, because there was a revolt on the part 
of the Huguenot nobles ; but it revived the activity of the 
Protestants, and encouraged the intervention of other powers. 



276 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

Incidentally also England was detached from the proposed 
matrimonial alliance with Spain, and instead of the Spanish 
princess the French king's sister Henrietta Maria was pre- 
sently betrothed to the Prince of Wales. 

It was in short being realised that the war in Germany was 
really an international affair ; that it would develop into a cam- 
Europe paign against Protestantism, which for various 
involved. reasons involved Denmark, Sweden and Poland 
as well as Hungary, outside the limits of the empire itself. As 
concerns Denmark it is enough to say that the Danish king 
held Holstein as a fief of the empire, as well as certain 
Imperial bishoprics. As to the other countries named a brief 
retrospective sketch becomes necessary. 

In Poland the reformed religion had made considerable pro- 
gress. The reigning family of the Jagellons died out in 1572, 
2. The Outer an d the Polish Estates thereupon resolved, first 
Powers. that the monarchy should be entirely elective 

henceforth, and secondly that Protestants and Catholics should 
have equal political rights. The king was to be merely a 
Poland and nominal head of what was in fact an aristocratic 
Sweden. republic. The third king elected was Sigismund, 

who was also heir to the throne of Sweden. Sigismund, how- 
ever, was a strong Catholic, and set about restoring Catholic 
ascendency in Poland. When he became King of Protestant 
Sweden, his attempts to pursue the same policy there resulted 
in his deposition in favour of his uncle, Charles ix., who ruled 
with vigour and success, and was succeeded by his son Gustavus 
Adolphus in 161 1. Sweden had disputes with Denmark on 
the one side, and on the other was threatened by Sigismund of 
Poland with his claim to the Swedish throne. 

At this stage Russia becomes a factor in the complications. 
We saw that Ivan 111. freed himself from the Mongol dominion. 
. During the sixteenth century his successors, notably 

Ivan the Terrible, extended the Russian kingdom 
on one side to the Caspian Sea, and tried to extend it on the 
other side to the Baltic. Here, however, Poland stood in the 
way,and the Russian expansion was forced back. Then while 
Charles ix, was ejecting Sigismund from Sweden, the ruling 



THE ERA OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 277 

house of Russia died out. Sweden and Poland both involved 

themselves in the Russian dynastic struggle which inevitably 

followed. In the result Russia made cessions of territory both 

to Sweden and to Poland, but remained independent under the 

dynasty of the Romanoffs whom she chose herself; while 

Sigismund and Gustavus Adolphus were left to battle with each 

other for territories on the Baltic. 

As concerns Hungary we have to remark that the country 

had now fallen practically into three divisions : one under the 

control of Austria : another under Turkish „ 

. . . Hungary, 

dominion ; while the third, Transylvania, was 

really an independent principality ruled by Bethlen Gabor. 
The aggressive movement of Turkey had ceased towards the 
end of the sixteenth century, some time after the Turkish fleets 
had been defeated in the famous battle of Lepanto in 1572; 
so that there was no immediate pressure from that quarter to 
hamper the emperor in the German Thirty Years' War to which 
we can now revert. 

In 1626 Christian of Denmark came forward as a prince of 
the empire to head the Protestant resistance to the Catholic 
advance. His intervention proved futile. The 3. Germany- 
Imperial armies were successful on all hands, but and tne War - 
the Imperial policy itself had changed. In the earlier stage of 
the war Ferdinand had in effect been in the hands of the 
Catholic princes headed by Maximilian of Bavaria, 
who had reaped most of the fruits of victory. The 
successful General Tilly was the instrument of Maximilian rather 
than of Ferdinand, and Catholic domination was the object in 
view. But in this second stage there was a new Imperial army 
in the field, raised by the energy of the Bohemian Wallenstein. 
It was Wallenstein, not Tilly, who swept down resistance, and 
Wallenstein's object was to make the emperor personally 
supreme, a project which was no more to the taste of the 
Catholic princes than to that of the Protestants; while all 
German nobility was offended by the rise to power of a 
Bohemian upstart. The issue was no longer single and direct, 
when the Catholics found themselves labouring in the cause of 
a universal Hapsburg domination. 



278 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

Wallenstein wanted the control of North Germany and the 
command of the Baltic. The maritime towns of the Hanseatic 
Walienstein's League refused to be attracted to the Imperial side, 
Policy. an d he met his first rebuff when Stralsund refused 

to open its gates and successfully defied siege. Wallenstein had 
made it clear that he cared nothing about religious differences. 
He meant to have an overwhelmingly strong army, with the most 
efficient officers and men, whether they were Protestants or 
Catholics, maintained not exclusively by pillage as had been the 
case with the troops of the Protestant leaders, and even with 
Tilly's troops, but by forced contributions from Catholics and 
Protestants alike. He would have created a military empire in 
which the real ruler would have been the captain of the Imperial 
army. Ferdinand, on the other hand, influenced by the League, 
took this opportunity in 1629 to issue what is called the Edict 
of Restitution, which restored to the Catholics all those 
bishoprics which had passed into Protestant hands during the 
last seventy years. This would have created a number of 
Catholic principalities in the heart of the Protestant north. On 
the one hand this was obviously incompatible with Walienstein's 
plans, so far as they disregarded the religious question ; on the 
other, it gave an impulse to a more active combination among 
the Protestants. 

Although Richelieu was suppressing Protestants in France, he 
desired the comparative success of Protestantism in Germany as 
Richelieu a check on the Hapsburgs, and he negotiated a 

and the War. peace between Sweden and Poland which set 
Gustavus Adolphus free to throw his sword in the scale. This 
the Swedish king was the more eager to do, not only from his 
honest zeal for Protestantism, but because the Imperial scheme 
Gustavus was a serious threat to Sweden and her power in 

Adolphus. t he Baltic. The great Swedish soldier landed in 
Pomerania, just when the German Catholic princes had forced 
Wallenstein into retirement. For some time, however, Gustavus 
was compelled to remain inactive by the persistent neutrality of 
Saxony and Brandenburg, while the great city of Magdeburg was 
besieged, stormed, and sacked, with a ferocity almost unparalleled. 
That turned the scale at last. Saxony joined Gustavus, and the 



THE ERA OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 279 

victory of Breitenfeld suddenly transferred the domination of 
Germany to the Protestant King of Sweden. 

We need not follow the campaigns which brought about the 
complete reversal of the previous situation. The triumphs of 
Gustavus compelled the emperor to recall Wallen- Later Stages 
stein, who was now determined to play for his own of the War ' 
hand. The two great generals met at the battle of Liitzen, 
where Gustavus himself fell in the hour of victory. There was 
no one to succeed him capable of carrying out his policy of 
uniting German Protestantism. A year later Wallenstein was 
murdered, and the war became a chaos of conflicts with the 
Swedes fighting for their own hand, the French seeking to snatch 
Rhine provinces for themselves out of the general confusion, and 
princes on both sides chiefly engaged in the general game of 
grabbing territories. 

The Thirty Years' War was brought to an end in 1648 by the 
series of treaties known as the Peace of Westphalia. It had 
devastated Germany and half depopulated it. It The Peace of 
made anything like a unification of the empire Westphalia, 
impossible for two centuries. It left Austria nothing 1648, 
more than the strongest among the German states, with a merely 
titular supremacy. It added to the territories of some princes, 
and took away from those of others, while it gave Sweden a 
definite foothold south of the Baltic, and it left France the 
greatest military state in Europe. As to the religious question, 
it practically restored the Peace of Augsburg, with some modifica- 
tions in favour of the Protestant interpretations of that com- 
promise, and with an extension to the Calvinists of the rights 
which had been previously conceded only to the Lutherans. 
Germany had become practically a collection of states large and 
small, owning a merely nominal allegiance to the Austrian 
emperor; and it is Austria, not the empire, Austria with its 
kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, which now has to be 
recognised as a European power. 

While Germany was tearing herself to pieces, England and 
Scotland were somewhat similarly occupied with a struggle which 
was partly religious and partly constitutional. The Crown 
attempted to render itself absolute, and to impose religious 



2 8o THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

uniformity. But in England the people held the power of the 
purse. The revenues at the king's disposal were not sufficient to 
4. England enable him to maintain troops at his own cost. 
and Scot- For that purpose it was necessary to obtain grants 

from the House of Commons. Without troops the 
king could not enforce his will, and he endeavoured by every device 
for which he could obtain the authority of the Law Courts to ex- 
tract from his subjects the money which they would not grant him 
The Civil except on their own terms. The practical effect was 

War - that on the one hand the king was still unable to 

obtain sufficient supplies, and the parliament practically claimed 
the control of policy as a condition of granting them. After 
long wrangles, and an attempt on the part of the king, extended 
over eleven years, to live by his exactions, the Crown was re- 
duced to extremities when the Scots took up arms in defence of 
their religious liberties. 

The English parliament was summoned that it might grant 
supplies for the Scots war. It refused supplies, attainted the 
king's great minister Strafford, and arraigned the king himself of 
unconstitutional practices. A civil war resulted. The arms of 
the parliament triumphed, and Charles became a prisoner ; but 
the power of control passed from parliament itself to the captains 
of its army. The king attempted by intrigues and plots to 
recover his own ascendency. Insurrections in his favour were 
crushed, and almost at the moment when the treaty of West- 
phalia was completed Charles was arraigned on the charge of 
treason before an unconstitutional tribunal, and was executed. 

For nine years England was practically under the control of 
the military dictator, Oliver Cromwell, who received the title of 
The Com- Lord Protector. Under the Commonwealth England 

monwealth. was a ^l e to adopt a vigorous foreign policy from 
which she had been debarred by the strife between the 
Crown and the parliament. But such a military monarchy, 
inevitably ignoring all tradition, was intolerable to England, and 
its continuity was impossible as soon as Cromwell himself died. 
In 1660 the nation recalled the exiled King Charles 11. 

But while Crown and parliament were wrangling during the 
reign of James 1., and the earlier years of Charles 1., England 



THE ERA OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 281 

was laying the foundations of a great nation on the other side of 

the Atlantic. American colonisation began, as we have already 

seen, in Virginia; but it received a fresh impulse The 

from the persecution by the Crown of the Puritans, American 

the advanced reformers who were not satisfied with Colonies - 

the changes in doctrine and ceremonial which had been 

sanctioned in the Church in England. Forbidden at home to 

deviate from authorised practice, the Puritans obtained leave to 

plant colonies to the north of Virginia, where they were at liberty 

to follow their own devices : and thus the New England group of 

colonies was established, starting from Massachusetts ; while 

again to the north, French colonists were establishing themselves 

in Acadia, afterwards called Nova Scotia, and beyond the St. 

Lawrence in Canada. In the course of time English colonists 

occupied the whole seaboard between Florida on the south and 

Nova Scotia on the north. 

Holland also, as we may now call the Dutch Republic of the 

United Netherlands, which had shaken off the yoke of Spain, 

had developed colonial enterprises, so that in the 

,111, r • • TT n , 5 - Holland. 

eastern seas she held the foremost position. Holland 

was a republic ; but the house of Orange provided her with a 
series of Stadtholders or Governors of great ability, and the 
government might really be described as a limited monarchy. 
Shortly before the death of Charles 1. of England, the young 
stadtholder William 11. allied himself to a royal house by marry- 
ing Charles's daughter Mary. Not long afterwards William was 
foiled in an attempt to make himself king, and during the long 
minority of the son, born after his death, who ultimately be- 
came William 111. of England as well as of Orange, Holland 
was vigorously republican under the guidance of the Grand 
Pensionary, John de Witt. The connection of the young 
Prince of Orange with the Royal House of England, whose 
kings Charles 11. and James 11. were his uncles, had a marked 
influence on international politics especially after the English 
Restoration. 

Although Holland was independent after 1609, her status as 
an independent nation was not fully and formally recognised 
until the Peace of Westphalia, when the independence of 



282 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

Switzerland was also formally acknowledged. Nevertheless, 
before the middle of the century Holland ranked as the most 
Dutch and considerable of the maritime powers, though her 
English. claim to that position was challenged by England 

immediately after the close of the Civil War. The energy which 
created for the English parliament troops which were a match 
for any in Europe restored her fleet also to the position which it 
had held at the end of Elizabeth's reign. It cannot be said that 
either English or Dutch could prove a clear superiority, but no 
one else could pretend to rival either. In virtue of the fleet, 
the little group of provinces which had fought so stubbornly 
against the might of Spain was able to take rank with the first- 
class European powers. 

Spain, though she was at no time during the seventeenth 
century an efficient power, generally succeeded in persuading 
herself and the world that she was still to be dreaded, 
and her recovery would in fact have been perfectly 
possible under vigorous rulers free from the domination of the 
clergy. But such power as she possessed was steadily on the 
wane, and she did little beyond distracting the attention of 
France and England from the war in Germany. In 1740 the 
house of Braganza reasserted its claim to the Portuguese Crown, 
which it recovered largely by French assistance after a prolonged 
struggle. Both in Sicily and in Naples there were popular 
revolts against the Spanish rule, though in both the government 
succeeded with some difficulty in recovering its authority. 

With the exception of Holland, the one power which actually 
advanced its position in Europe during this period was France. 
7 France ^he act ^ ve intervention of Richelieu in the Thirty 

under Years' War was checked by the Huguenot revolt. 

Richelieu. Th - g lgd tQ ttie lon g s ^ Q ending in the capture of 

La Rochelle, the great fortress and port of the Huguenots. Its 
overthrow broke the Huguenot resistance, but was not used for 
The the destruction of that party. The earlier treaties 

Huguenots. h a cl left them in complete military control of several 
fortified cities, of which they were now deprived ; but their 
ordinary rights as citizens remained to them. But the cardinal's 
determination to check abuses of administration were extremely 



THE ERA OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 283 

unpalatable to the nobles who profited by them. Plots were 
formed for his overthrow, in which the Queen Mother and other 
members of the royal family participated. Still, the cardinal 
retained his influence over the king, and although it seemed for 
a moment that his enemies had triumphed, he was able to turn 
the tables upon them, and many of them fled over the border. 
Richelieu's hostility to the house of Hapsburg might have 
brought Hapsburg troops to the support of his enemies, if 
Gustavus Adolphus had not very opportunely opened that series 
of successes which gave the Germans more than enough occupa- 
tion in their own territories. 

But Richelieu aimed at diminishing the large powers still 
possessed by provincial governors in France, and concentrating 
them in the hands of the central government. The Domestic 
Governor of Languedoc allied himself with the con- Rule - 
spirators against Richelieu's power, and revolted. The revolt was 
suppressed with no undue harshness, but the Governor was sent 
to the scaffold. The cardinal's position was further strengthened 
when the birth of an heir, afterwards Louis xiv., destroyed the 
hopes of the king's brother, hitherto heir-presumptive and one 
of Richelieu's most persistent enemies. 

Richelieu's domestic victories set him free to reap benefits for 
France out of the German war. His primary object was to 
cripple Spain, which, under a capable government, Foreign 
might recover its old power if it could establish the Pol icy. 
connection by land between Italy and the Spanish Netherlands. 
That connection would be practically secured if the Imperialists 
held possession of the Rhine valley, since Imperial territory 
was in effect at the service of Spain. By getting Alsace and 
Lorraine into his own hands, Richelieu was able completely to 
sever all land communication between Spain and the Spanish 
Netherlands. When Richelieu died in 1642 the Spanish hold 
on Italy was weakened; Portugal had broken away from her, 
Catalonia was in revolt, and she could not reach the Nether- 
lands ; while France had extended her own frontier in the Rhine 
provinces. Within France itself, he had succeeded in establish- 
ing a central despotism, beneficent in its aims, at the expense of 
the power of the nobles whose minor despotisms had not as a 



284 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

rule been beneficent. The idea of ' government by the people,' 
which was at the root of the dispute which in England was just 
then culminating in the Civil War, had not presented itself to any 
of the rulers of Europe. Absolutism was the one alternative to 
feudal disunion and anarchy. 

Richelieu died; Louis took for his minister Mazarin, who 
pursued the great cardinal's policy though by different methods. 
8 France Louis died a few months later, and the regency was 

under conferred on his widow Anne of Austria, who 

Mazarin. disappointed the expectations under which she had 

been chosen by retaining Mazarin. Five years later the policy 
of Richelieu and Mazarin bore its fruit for France in the treaty 
of Westphalia. 

Before the peace was actually signed, there had broken out 
that travesty of a constitutional struggle known as the War of 
the Fronde; a contest in which there were no 
principles at stake except the desire of various 
nobles to get rid of all controlling authority, and of some few to 
capture the controlling authority for themselves ; sign of other 
than personal motives there was none. Leaders who were on 
the same side one day were on opposite sides the next. After 
four years, during which the Spaniards had recovered some 
ground — for the Peace of Westphalia had not terminated the 
contest between France and Spain — Mazarin was reinstated in 
power. The government troops were placed under the command 
of the great general Turenne. Mazarin sought and obtained the 
support of the Lord Protector of England, whose fleets under 
Robert Blake smote those of Spain, while his Ironsides joined 
Turenne in the Netherlands. Dunkirk was captured, and the 
conquest of the whole country appeared to be merely a question 
of time. 

The success of France was assured largely through the help 
she had received from Cromwell. Had Cromwell lived he 
The Treatv wou1 ^ nave seen t0 it that the policy of France 
of the should subserve his own or at least should not 

Pyrenees, override it. But Cromwell died. England again 

] 659 

fell into confusion, and Mazarin could turn every- 
thing that had been gained to the advantage of France. Spain 



THE ERA OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 285 

was isolated, and was ready enough to accept the terms offered by 
Mazarin, and ratified by the treaty of the Pyrenees. France 
gave back Lorraine to its duke ; she also resigned all pretensions 
in Italy. But she received from Spain some frontier territory 
in the Netherlands with a number of fortresses, and the con- 
firmation of her right to Alsace. At the same time the young 
King of France, Louis xiv., married the elder of the Spanish 
princesses, and was thus able forty years afterwards to claim the 
succession to the Spanish throne for his own grandson. 
Eighteen months later Mazarin was dead, and the young Louis 
took upon himself the task of governing France through 
ministers whose policy was dictated by himself; not masters of 
the government but servants of the king. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



Book vl, 1470 to 1660 



GUIDING DATES 



Death of Charles the Bold 
Union of Spanish Crowns 
Tudor Dynasty . 
Conquest of Granada 
Discovery of America 
Charles vn. invades Italy 
Da Gama sails to India 
Accession of Charles 
Conquest of Mexico 
Diet of Worms . 
Peasants' War . 
Babar . 

Protest of Speier 
Conquest of Peru 
Calvin in Geneva 
Order of Jesuits . 
Schmalkaldic War 
Peace of Augsburg 
Akbar . 
Accession of Philip II. 
Huguenot Wars begin 
Close of Council of Trent 
Alva in the Netherlands 
Revolt of the Netherlands 
St. Bartholomew. 



1477 Union of Utrecht 

1479 Death of Mary Stuart 

1485 Spanish Armada. 

1492 Accession of Henry IV. in 

1492 France ..-•'■.. 

1495 Edict of Nantes . 

1498 Crowns of England and 

1 5 19 Scotland united 

1 5 19 Colony of Virginia 

1 521 Dutch Republic established 

1524 Thirty Years' War begins . 

1525 Richelieu's Ascendency be- 

1529 gins 

1532 Rise of Wallenstein . 

1536 Gustavus Adolphus in 

1540 Germany .... 

1 547 Accession of the Great 

1555 Elector in Brandenburg . 

1556 English Civil War begins . 
1556 Mazarin succeeds Richelieu 
1562 Accession of Louis xiv. 
t 5^3j Treaty of Westphalia . 
1568 Commonwealth in England 
1572 Treaty of the Pyrenees 

1 572 Restoration in England 



1579 
1587 
1588 

1589 
1589 

1603 
1606 
1609 
1618 

1624 
1626 

1630 

1640 
1642 
1642 

1643 
1648 
1649 
1659 
1660 



LEADING NAMES 



Ferdinand of Aragon— Isabella of Castile — Maximilian of Austria 
— Savonarola — Erasmus — Luther — Zwingli — Calvin — Leo X. — 
Clement VII.— Christopher Columbus— Vasco da Gama— Cortes— 
Pizarro— Drake— Charles V.— Francis I.— Henry VIII. -Philip II.— 
Elizabeth— Catherine de Medici— Henry IV.— William of Orange- 
Suleiman the Magnificent— Frederick, Elector Palatine— James I.— 
Ferdinand II. — Wallenstein — Gustavus Adolphus — Richelieu — 
Mazarin— Cromwell— Babar 1 — Akbar. 1 

1 See Chapter xxm. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



287 



GENEALOGICAL TABLE 
SHOWING THE ACCUMULATION OF DOMINIONS 
IN THE HANDS OF THE HOUSE OF HAPSBURG. 



SPAIN. 

Isabella of Castile, 

m. 

Ferdinand of 

Aragon. 

I 

Joanna, 

heiress of Spain, 

m. 
Archduke Philip. 



BURGUNDY. 

Charles the Bold 
(Burgundy and Netherlands). 

Mary, 

m. 

Maximilian. 



Charles V. 

(Spain and Burgundy), 

m. 

Isabella of Portugal. 

Philip II. 

(Spain and Burgundy ; 
Portugal, 1580), 



I 
Elizabeth of France. 

I 

Infanta Isabella 

(claimed French 

succession). 



AUSTRIA. 

Frederick III. 
(Austria). 

Maximilian, 

m. 

Mary of Burgundy. 



I 
Archduke Philip, 

m. 
Joanna of Spain. 



I 

Ferdinand I. 

(Austria) 

(Hungary and Bohemia). 

I 



Maximilian II. 



I 
Ferdinand. 



I 
Charles. 

I 
Ferdinand II. 

I 
Ferdinand III. 



Anne of Hapsburg. 

I 
Philip III. 
(Spain and , 
Portugal). 



Anne, 

m. 

Philip II. 



Rudolf. Matthias. 



Kings of Spain printed in italics. 



Emperors printed in capitals. 



India. The powerful dynasty of the ' Moguls ' was established in 
the north of India by Babar, a bold invader from Afghanistan, 
between 1525 and 1529. The Mogul dominion, however, was not 
secured until his grandson Akbar was placed on the throne in 1556. 
No serious attempt to conquer the south of India was made till a 
hundred years later, but this century during which Akbar and his 
two sons reigned is the time of India's greatest magnificence and 
prosperity. Till the seventeenth century the Portuguese were still 
the only Europeans who established themselves in the east ; but 
they did not try to seize territory, being satisfied to exercise supreme 
control over the seas. In the first half of the seventeenth century 



288 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY 

the English were permitted to make a small number of settlements 
on the coast, exclusively for trading purposes. 

Intellectual Progress. The great intellectual movement called the 
Renaissance began in Italy before the thirteenth century was ended, 
but the rest of Europe was only affected by it by slow degrees. But 
at the close of the fifteenth century it became vigorous everywhere, 
culminating in England a hundred years later with the group of 
great writers who are called collectively ' Elizabethans,' though much 
of their work belongs to the reign of James I. It was during the 
same period that the great advance of science began ; astronomy 
was revolutionised by the Dane Copernicus, and the principles of 
scientific inquiry were formulated by the Englishman Francis 
Bacon. 

The Reformation. Certain aspects of the Reformation require to be 
kept carefully distinguished, (i) It was a part of the general revolt 
against intellectual submission to the dogmatic pronouncements of 
authority. (2) It was a revolt against specific doctrines which 
interpose a priesthood as necessary intermediaries between the 
individual man and his Maker. (3) It was a revolt against the 
practice of attributing more value to the observance of ceremonial 
than to obedience to the moral law. (4) But all the reformed 
churches tended to substitute new authority, new intermediaries, and 
new observances, for the old. They continued to be intolerant, and 
to persecute. Acceptance of the principle of toleration was of much 
later date. (5) It was the logical conclusion of the contest for 
supreme authority between Church and state. In this aspect, as a 
matter of fact, the Church found itself compelled to accept subordina- 
tion even in the states which remained 'orthodox.' (6) It appealed 
to and was fostered by governments, as providing them with an 
excuse for seizing ecclesiastical property. (7) The clergy were 
frequently led to support it, by the desire to free themselves from 
subjection to an Italian bishop ; though many of them returned to 
the papal allegiance (like Gardiner and Bonner in England) when 
they found that the alternative was subjection to a lay authority. 



BOOK VI I 
THE BOURBON AGE 



CHAPTER XXI 

LOUIS XIV 

The aggressive policy which is the most marked feature of the 
long reign of Louis xiv. did not at once develop itself. The 
young king had great ambitions ; he intended to i. Louis XIV. 
make himself a good deal more than the arbiter of rales. 
Europe. But his first business was not active aggression. Mazarin 
left behind him a group of exceedingly efficient ministers, but 
none who had been marked out to take his place ; it was, how- 
ever, by Mazarin's own advice that the dangerous Fouquet 
was removed from the ministry of finance and was replaced by 
Colbert. For some time Colbert was the moving spirit; he 
reorganised the finances, and nursed a number of industries into 
active life by a vigorous protective policy. That is 
to say the state paid for the creation of industries. 
In the course of time that came to mean that, foreign com- 
petition being completely barred, the French producers lost all 
incentive to cheapen production, and the public suffered accord- 
ingly. But at the outset a start was given to industries which 
could not have entered the arena of competition unaided, but, 
once established, would have been able to hold their own. 

For the time being the protective policy was accompanied by 
a great increase of prosperity. It was accompanied also by an 
energetic development of commerce. England and Holland had 
set the example of encouraging great commercial companies to 
which extensive privileges were conceded by the Commerce 
government. The example was now followed in and 
France, where an East India Company, a West ^lonlaaiion. 
India Company, and an African Company were formed. But 

291 



292 THE BOURBON AGE 

whereas England went on the principle of conceding privileges in 
return for cash, and leaving the development of commerce to the 
enterprise of the Companies, France went to the opposite extreme 
of making the state a controlling partner : and the event demon- 
strated the superiority of the English methods. Further, the 
development of a great over-seas commerce carried with it the 
necessity for a fighting navy; and under Colbert's regime a 
navy was created, which for a short time was actually able to rate 
itself as on an equality with the navy of Holland or England. 

Beside Colbert's activity in these directions, more system was 
brought into the organisation of the army, and special attention 
was given to what are called the scientific branches, artillery and 
engineering, with notable results. 

When Cromwell was ruling in England and Mazarin in France, 
the Lord Protector had made up his mind that the cause of 

2. The Protestantism would be furthered by his alliance 
English with France against Spain, since France accepted 
Restoration. the theQry Qf tolerationj and Spain did not To all 

appearance Charles n. was continuing the Protector's policy, by 
preserving friendly relations with his French cousin. But 
Charles was actuated by wholly different motives, while the 
French king's ambitions were taking a direction which would 
very soon have brought him into collision with Cromwell. 

Louis had married the Spanish Infanta with an eye to the 
Spanish succession. The French law of male succession did not 

3. Louis XIV. a PPty m Spain, and between the bride of Louis and 
aggressive. the Spanish throne there stood only a sickly youth. 
It was true that she had renounced all her claims in consideration 
of a substantial dowry ; still, until that dowry was paid, the re- 
The Nether- nunciation might be repudiated. But apart from the 
lands. possibility of putting forward a claim to the Spanish 
throne, Louis had discovered a technical plea on which he 
intended to claim on behalf of his wife sundry provinces of the 
Spanish Netherlands ; on the ground that, according to the law 
in those provinces, the daughter of a first wife, as she was, suc- 
ceeded in priority to the son of a second, as was her brother 
Charles, the heir to the Spanish throne. In short Louis intended 
to have the Netherlands for himself, while holding in reserve a 



LOUIS XIV. 293 

claim to the Spanish throne on behalf of his wife. He meant 
not the Upper Rhine, but the whole Rhine, to be the boundary 
of the French kingdom. 

This aggressive policy first manifested itself when Philip iv. of 
Spain died, and the Spanish regency, on the accession of the boy 
Charles 11. in Spain, refused to recognise Louis's theory, that his 
wife was the heiress of the Netherland provinces. Louis pro- 
ceeded to invade the Spanish Netherlands and Franche Comte, 
took complete possession of the latter, and captured The Triple 
most of the fortresses in the former. His alarm- Alliance, 
ingly rapid progress brought about the Triple Alliance between 
England, Sweden and Holland ; but Louis secured his immediate 
object by a private agreement with the Emperor Leopold, who 
had married the younger sister of the French king's Spanish wife. 
When Charles should die, an event which every one looked for 
at an early date, the younger sister was to have Spain, and the 
elder sister was to have the rest. So Louis contented himself 
with a peace which left him in possession of the captured Nether- 
lands' fortresses. 

But Louis had other designs. He intended to be at once the 

champion and dictator of Catholicism. He intended to restore 

Catholicism in England, and to destroy the Calvinistic Dutch 

Republic : and he also intended France to become „ . 

Louis, 
entirely Catholic. The King of England was quite Charles, and 

willing to fall in with his plans, provided that he tne Dutch 
could dupe the English people. He did not dare epu 
to defy the parliament which was learning to keep a jealous eye 
on expenditure. He wanted cash for his own purposes, and had 
no qualms about selling himself and his country for the French 
king's gold. An anti-Dutch programme seemed practicable be- 
cause of the jealousy subsisting between England and Holland, 
which had twice fought each other during the last twenty years. 
Besides, the overthrow of the Republic was to provide his young 
nephew, William of Orange, with a throne, though he was to 
occupy it by the grace of England and France. 

So Louis made his private bargain with Charles Stuart, whose 
ministers were quite ready to desert Holland, while they were 
kept in ignorance of the other details. Sweden also was detached 



294 THE BOURBON AGE 

from the Triple Alliance, and the only one of the German 
princes who threatened to support Holland was Frederick 
Holland William of Brandenburg, known as the Great 

isolated. Elector. The one thing on which nobody had 

calculated was the character of young William of Orange, who 
had every intention of recovering the power of his house in 
Holland, but was no less determined to fight for Dutch independ- 
ence to the last gasp. 

In 1672 Louis opened the attack. The Dutch navy was 
powerful, and proved itself a match for the combined fleets of 
The Invasion France and England, which suffered from the in- 
of Holland, ability to co-operate, by which allied navies seem to 
1672# be still more seriously afflicted than allied armies. 

But the Dutch armies were in a deplorable condition. The 
partisans of the house of Orange forced the Dutch government 
to place William in command, but he was almost helpless, and 
could offer no effective resistance when the French troops entered 
the United Provinces. The Dutch rose in fury against the 
government, murdered the two De Witts, and made William 
stadtholder. William justified their faith in his courage 
and patriotism. By his order the dykes were opened, 
and the French troops were literally flooded out of the 
country. 

The French successes had already created so much alarm that 
the emperor took up arms in support of the Dutch. Louis had 
to fall back on the defensive. Still the brilliant military genius 
War with a of Turenne enabled the French to check the 
coalition. German forces at every point. The details of the 
campaigns during the next three years, especially of those con- 
ducted by Turenne, are of great military interest, but cannot be 
dealt with here. In 1675, however, Turenne himself was killed 
by a stray bullet, when two other brilliant commanders, the 
Imperialist Montecuculi and the French Conde, retired. Still, 
as the war continued, the successes lay rather with the French 
than with the allies ; and the progress of the French, navy was 
signally demonstrated when Duquesne, the French admiral, 
proved himself a match for the Dutch De Ruyter in the Medi- 
terranean. But in effect France had been standing at bay against 



LOUIS XIV. 295 

a great coalition, and the brilliant achievements of her generals 
had not carried her far forward. In 1678, in spite of the opposi- 
tion of William of Orange, the treaty of Nimeguen The Treaty- 
brought the war to an end for the time. Spain of Nimeguen, 
finally surrendered Franche Comte, but otherwise 1678 ' 
the possessions of the belligerents were restored practically as 
they had been when the war began ; and France still held the 
fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands. 

For ten years after the Peace of Nimeguen there was com- 
parative peace. Circumstances favoured Louis in making his 
own use of the treaties without actually inviting the The 
armed attack of a European combination. The Reunions, 
territories which had been ceded to France in the Rhine district 
were conveyed under terms which left many open questions. 
Louis appointed his own courts to interpret the rights of the 
French Crown under the treaties. As a matter of course the 
interpretation was in all points favourable to the maximum 
possible French claim. When Spain declined a complete 
surrender to Louis's curious principle of arbitration, Louis 
opened an attack on the towns which were in dispute. Spain 
could get no help, because the emperor was occupied with a 
Turkish war. Brandenburg was sulky over the manner in which 
its interests had been neglected by the allies, and in Holland 
the old republican peace-party was temporarily in the ascendent. 
So Louis got his own way in what is called the ' Affair of the 
Reunions.' 

Louis, however, soon forced Europe to combine against him 
again. Down to 1683 Colbert was able to exercise some in- 
fluence in checking his master's aggressiveness, which was 
fostered by the war minister Louvois. But in that year Colbert 
died ; there was no check on Louvois, while the king fell to a 
great extent under the influence of Madame de Louis and 
Maintenon to whom he was secretly married. She the Church. 
was a religious zealot, and urged Louis forward to a disastrous 
attack on the Huguenots. At the same time Louis, like Henry 
viii. in England in the past, while parading his championship of 
orthodoxy was determined himself to be the head of the Church 
as well as of the state. His arrogant treatment of the pope 



296 THE BOURBON AGE 

alienated the papacy to which his claims appeared more danger- 
ous than Protestantism, while he was energetically supported by 
the Jesuit organisation. 

It was under these conditions that he changed his policy 
towards the Huguenots. Hitherto he had sought to procure 
religious uniformity by rewarding converts, among 
of the Edict whom was numbered the great Turenne, rather than 
of Nantes, by severity. Now he took the violent step of re- 
voking the Edict of Nantes, Henry iv.'s charter of 
Huguenot liberties, and a severe persecution followed. The 
result was an enormous immigration of Huguenots to England, 
Holland, and Brandenburg. These Huguenots were the cream 
of the industrial population. The great industrial advance which 
owed so much to Colbert was wrecked, while the emigrants 
greatly stimulated the trade of the countries where they found 
asylums. The liberal-minded Pope Innocent xi. entirely dis- 
approved, while the measure had the effect of consolidating 
Protestant antagonism to Louis outside France. On the other 
hand the attitude of the pope prevented any prospect of a 
Catholic combination in support of Louis, apart from the fact 
that the Catholic powers were politically threatened by his 
aggression no less than the Protestants. 

Just at this moment James n. succeeded his brother Charles 
ii. on the English throne. He was a bigoted Catholic, and 
England had just been passing through a stage of 
Revolution particularly violent religious panic directed against 
in England, everything which to English Protestantism savoured 
of popery. James's chance lay in associating him- 
self with the pope and the principle of toleration. But he 
wanted French money and French support, and he alone of the 
Catholic princes associated himself with Louis and with schemes 
for a forcible restoration of Romanism. The result was that the 
English nation united in calling to the throne his Protestant 
daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange, Scotland 
following suit. 

Louis saw the European powers on the verge of an active com- 
bination against him, and resolved to strike first. But though he 
was alive to what was going on in England he made the amazing 



LOUIS XIV. 297 

mistake of attacking not Holland, but the Palatinate. William 
was thus set free to make his expedition to England. James fled 
to France, where he was welcomed by Louis ; but 5 F rance 
England was definitely and decisively added to the against 
circle of the powers actively hostile to France. To Europe - 
Louis's blunder England owed the immediate and complete 
success of the Revolution of 1688. In 1689 all Europe was 
practically in arms against the French king. William, the most 
implacable of all Louis's foes, was in effective control of the 
forces both of England and Holland. The death of the Jacobite 
Dundee at Killiecrankie in 1689 secured the new monarchy in 
Scotland, while the battle of the Boyne next year destroyed the 
Stuart or Jacobite hopes of making Ireland the basis for a 
restoration. 

Meanwhile the French, assailed on every side, held their own ; 
and in 1690 the French fleet inflicted a severe defeat on the 
English off Beachy Head. But this was the high-water mark of 
the French naval success. Two years later the victor of Beachy 
Head, in obedience to the orders of the government, accepted 
an engagement with the English which resulted in a complete 
disaster. The battle of La Hogue decisively restored the Anglo- 
Dutch supremacy, and the French never again took the seas in 
force. 

Hitherto the wars of Louis had conspicuously proved that 
Louvois as well as Colbert was a man of very great administrative 
powers, although the policy in which he had en- character of 
couraged his master was evil. But in 1691 Louvois the War. 
also died, and thenceforth Louis never employed a minister of 
conspicuous ability. Still, however, his generals were a match 
for those of the allies. It would be vain to attempt to follow 
the campaigns in which the more conspicuous victories continued 
to fall to the French, while the skill of William of Orange re- 
peatedly prevented them from being followed by important results. 
France, fighting single-handed, felt the strain even more exhaust- 
ing than the allies. Louis adopted the plan of negotiating with 
the powers separately. Having thus detached the Duke of Savoy, 
whose attitude was practically the determining factor on the side 
of Italy, he was able to extract from the rest more favourable 



298 THE BOURBON AGE 

terms than he could otherwise have done; especially as the 
English were by no means zealous in the war, in which they felt 
that they were being used in Dutch interests rather than their 
own. They were satisfied with securing the recognition of the 
Protestant succession by Louis. Holland was satisfied with the 
occupation of barrier fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands 
which secured her frontiers against invasion. In Germany 
Treaty of Louis had surrendered all his conquests since 

Ryswick, Nimeguen except Strasburg. The treaty of Rys- 

1697 ' wick practically involved something more than 

the surrender by Louis on all questions which had risen 
since Nimeguen. 

But if Louis surrendered, it was not because he resigned his 
ambitions. The settlement of the Spanish succession was be- 
coming critical. There was no direct heir to the reigning King 
Charles n. His sisters, when they married the King of France 
and the emperor, had resigned their claims. If these were set 
6 The aside the emperor himself had a claim through his 

Spanish mother, but the validity of both the renunciations 

Succession. wag q Ues ti nable. Possible claimants therefore 
were a son or grandson of the French king, the son of the 
Elector of Bavaria through his mother the emperor's daughter, 
and the emperor himself, whose claim would be transferred to 
one of his sons born of his second wife. The union of Spain 
and all its dependencies, either to France or to Austria, would 
entirely upset the balance of power. Legally the strongest claim 
was that of the Bavarian prince, which was also the most satis- 
factory to Europe at large. So after the peace of Ryswick, 
the powers agreed to a compromise which divided the Italian 
dominions between the Bourbons and the Archduke Charles, 
and gave all the rest to the Bavarian prince. The only power 
not consulted was Spain itself. 

Three months after the first partition treaty the prince died. 
Thereupon the Elector of Bavaria claimed to take his son's place. 
That claim was rejected, and there was a fresh partition treaty 
which bestowed the main inheritance on the Archduke Charles, 
and presented Italy to France, which however was to hand over 
Milan to the Duke of Lorraine in exchange for his own duchy. 



LOUIS XIV. 299 

The archduke, it is to be noted, was a younger son, not the actual 
heir of the emperor. 

The powers might make partition treaties, but Spain had its 
own views, and did not choose to be partitioned. King Charles 
declared that Philip of Anjou, a younger grandson of King Louis, 
was his heir ; and having done so he died. Louis tore up the 
partition treaties by which he had bound himself, and accepted 
the whole Spanish inheritance for his grandson. 

For the moment Austria could find no allies to support her 
in resisting the breach of faith. William was paralysed by the 
dominance of the peace-party both in England and The Grand 
in Holland ; but Louis threw away his own advan- Alliance, 
tages. First he declared that Philip did not forfeit 1701, 
any right which might eventually arise to the succession to the 
French Crown. Then he turned Holland against him by eject- 
ing the Dutch troops from the barrier fortresses. Then the 
exiled King James 11. died, and Louis acknowledged his son as 
King of England ; and the English people promptly swung over 
and clamoured for war. William's apparent defeat was turned 
into a triumphant victory when the Grand Alliance was formed 
against Louis in 1701 ; and, though William himself died almost 
immediately afterwards, he left the carrying out of his policy to 
the Duke of Marlborough, a diplomatist no less skilful than him- 
self, and a military genius far greater. 

At the outset of the war of the Spanish succession, France had 

two advantages that she had previously lacked. The French 

succession was popular in Spain, and the Duke of 

7. War of 
Savoy was her ally, as also was Bavaria. On the the Spanish 

other hand the allies, though they suffered inevitably Succession, 

from divided counsels, had for leaders two greater 

commanders than any of the French, Marlborough and Prince 

Eugene. The Duke of Savoy did not long remain loyal to 

France, and Portugal joined the allies. The opening stage of the 

war gave the advantage on the whole to Eugene in Italy. In 

the Netherlands Marlborough was hampered by being subject to 

the control of the Dutch Estates, though as concerned the English 

government under Queen Anne he had almost a free hand owing 

to the influence held over the queen by his wife. Still, he was 



3 oo THE BOURBON AGE 

unable to adopt an audacious plan of campaign, and had to be 

satisfied with forcing the French back in the Netherlands by 

skilful manoeuvring. 

In Germany, however, success attended the French arms, and 

preparations were made for a great blow to be struck in 1 704. 

The French in conjunction with the Bavarians were 
The 
Blenheim to march on Vienna, counting that by seizing the 

Campaign, emperor's capital they would bring him to his knees 

and break up the coalition. But Eugene in Italy 

and Marlborough in the Netherlands concerted their own 

counter-plan for forming a junction and intercepting the French 

advance. Eugene withdrew his force from Italy to cover the 

capital. The Dutch would not allow Marlborough, who was 

Commander-in-chief of the allied forces, to leave the northern 

theatre of war; but he tricked them by a pretended campaign 

on the Moselle, from which he turned and suddenly dashed to 

the south-east to effect a junction with Eugene. 

The junction was successfully accomplished, and the united 

armies of France and Bavaria were shattered at the decisive 

Blenheim, battle of Blenheim on the Danube. Half the 

1704. French force was cut to pieces or compelled to 

surrender, Marlborough having pierced the centre and rolled up 

the right wing, while Eugene kept the left hotly engaged. The 

remnant succeeded in making good its retreat and falling back 

beyond the Rhine, and thenceforth Germany remained entirely 

in the hands of the allies. 

Marlborough returned to the Netherlands, where his second 

great victory of Ramillies two years later was followed by the 

Ramillies capture of the most important cities of the Spanish 

1706. Netherlands. In the same year Eugene, who had 

been detained at Vienna by the death of the emperor and the 

accession of his son Joseph, returned to Italy, where the French 

had been making way under Vendome. The tables 

there were completely turned; the French were 

practically driven out of the country, and the Archduke Charles 

was proclaimed king at Naples. Meanwhile English 

forces under Peterborough had entered Spain by 

way of Portugal, and an English squadron had surprised and 



LOUIS XIV. 301 

captured Gibraltar in 1704. There also it appeared for the 
moment that the victory of the allies was assured. 

Next year, however, the campaign in Spain was in favour of 
the French ; and Marlborough was kept inactive partly because 
his diplomatic abilities were required to prevent the interven- 
tion of the Swedish King Charles xn. on behalf oudenarde, 
of France. But again the French recovery was 1708. 
checked in 1708 by another decisive victory of Marlborough 
and Eugene at Oudenarde in Flanders, where the control by the 
allies was again secured. 

The strain on the resources of France was becoming cruel, 
and the conflict was apparently all but hopeless. Louis sued 
for peace, and would probably have accepted the terms offered 
by the allies if they had not actually included the demand that 
he should assist by force of arms in ejecting his grandson from 
Spain. Louis, since he must fight, preferred fighting his enemies 
rather than his kinsmen ; France answered heroically to his 
appeal, and the war went on. 

Once more Marlborough won a victory at Malplaquet, but 
at such cost to his own troops that the moral effect in France 
was almost as encouraging as if he had been Malplaquet, 
defeated. Again Louis proposed peace, and again 1709 - 
the same impossible terms were offered. Both Marlborough 
and Eugene, the conquering generals, were bent on crushing 
France utterly ; and the state of English politics made the 
duke feel that his own personal power depended on the con- 
tinuation of the war. The French fought on stubbornly ; the 
exorbitant demands of the chiefs of the allies were condemned 
by the general sentiment of Europe. In Spain the tide of 
success turned in favour of Philip. In England The Tide 
the Duchess of Marlborough lost her influence turns, 1710. 
with the queen, and a revulsion of popular feeling against the 
existing Whig Government brought into office the Tory 
leaders, who promptly recalled Marlborough and attacked 
him with exaggerated charges of peculation and misconduct. 
The death of the Emperor Joseph gave the Austrian succession 
and the Imperial Crown to his brother, the Archduke Charles ; 
so that, as far as the balance of power was concerned, his claim 



3 o2 THE BOURBON AGE 

to the Spanish throne was just as objectionable to Europe at 
large as that of Philip. 

Practically it was the Tory Government in England which 
negotiated in 17 13 the Peace of Utrecht. The Dutch and 
Peace of afterwards the emperor were compelled to accede 

Utrecht, 1713. to the arrangement. Philip got Spain and her 
American colonies, he and his heirs being barred from 
succession to the French throne ; while the rest of the French 
royal family were similarly barred from the Spanish throne. 
Holland was secured by receiving the barrier fortresses. The 
Spanish Netherlands became the Austrian Netherlands, the 
Italian kingdoms and duchies went to Austria and Sardinia to 
the Duke of Savoy, while England kept Gibraltar and Minorca 
and received Nova Scotia. In 17 15 Louis xiv. died, leaving 
as his heir a three-year-old grandson, and as regent his nephew, 
the Duke of Orleans. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE EAST AND THE NORTH 

During the last quarter of the sixteenth century and the first 
half of the seventeenth, the Ottoman power had ceased to be 
actively aggressive in Europe. This was partly 1 ThQ 
owing to the vigour of the Persian Empire under Turkish 
the Safavid dynasty on its eastern border, but still Em P ire - 
more to sheer incapacity or misrule at Constantinople. This 
Safavid dynasty, we may note in passing, arose at the beginning 
of the sixteenth century, and lasted till the middle of the 
eighteenth. The title of the ' Persian Sofy ' is derived from it. 

Towards the end of this period a maritime war broke out 
with Venice. But in 1656 court intrigues raised an Albanian, 
Mohammed Kiuprili, to the office of Grand Vizier or Chief 
Minister, and there ensued an era of renewed vigour. The 
Ottomans attacked Transylvania, a virtually independent 
principality comprising the eastern portion of Turkey- 
Hungary, over which they claimed sovereignty, aggressive. 
The Emperor Leopold supported Transylvania, and the Otto- 
man viziers turned hostile eyes on Vienna. In 1664 they were 
defeated at St. Gothard and made peace, withdrawing their 
troops from Transylvania, but still receiving tribute from it. 
They then turned to the completion of the war with Venice, 
which was compelled to surrender Crete in spite of the stubborn 
defence conducted by the heroic Morosini. 

The next move was made upon the Ukraine, a district in the 
south of what is now Russia, occupied by the Cossacks. This 
had recently been partitioned between Russia and Poland 
against the will of the Cossacks, who appealed to the Turks. 

303 



3 o 4 THE BOURBON AGE 

In spite of the military successes of the Polish commander 
John Sobieski, who was afterwards raised to the Polish throne, 
the Turks obtained possession of the province of Podolia for 
themselves. 

But further opportunities of aggression were provided by 
Hungary. The Emperor Leopold ruled oppressively in that 
portion of Hungary which was still retained by 
Austria. Hungary revolted, with encouragement 
from France which was now at war with the emperor, as well 
as from Poland and Transylvania. The revolutionary leader 
Turks besiege allied himself with the Turks, and for the second 
Vienna, 1683. time the Ottomans marched on Vienna. The 
treaty of Nimeguen had put an end for the time being to the 
war between Leopold and Louis, but the emperor was without 
trustworthy allies until he succeeded in winning the support of 
John Sobieski, who was now King of Poland. Vienna was 
besieged by a vast army, but Sobieski advanced to its relief 
and inflicted an overwhelming rout on the Turkish forces. 
This was followed up by a further attack, no less successful, 
on the Turks in Hungary. Venice joined with the empire, and 
the Turks met with a series of reverses while Hungary was 
sternly punished for its rebellion, and Transylvania was again 
brought under the Austrian sovereignty. In 1688 the 
Imperialists captured Belgrade. In spite of the renewed out- 
break of war between France and the emperor, the Imperialists 
continued for a time to win victories. Then came a period of 
Last rs Turkish successes while the best of the Austrian 
of Turkish generals were engaged in fighting the French. At 
aggression. j astj however, in 1697 Prince Eugene was set free 
to take command, and won a great victory at Zenta, while the 
Russian Tsar Peter the Great was attacking them on the north- 
east. The treaty of Carlowitz in 1699 brought the war to 
an end. Austria recovered practically all Hungary ; Poland 
recovered Podolia, and Russia retained Azof on the Black Sea 
which she had seized. Turkey retained Belgrade which she 
had recaptured. 

The war with Austria was not renewed till 17 16, when 
Eugene's victory at Peterwardein deprived the Turks of their 



THE EAST AND THE NORTH 305 

last foothold in Hungary, and in the following year he crowned 
his triumphs at the battle of Belgrade. The treaty of 
Passarowitz closes the last period of Turkish aggression. 

Meanwhile the states on the Baltic had been the scene of 
picturesque and sometimes important events. Gustavus 
Adolphus was succeeded on the Swedish throne 2. The Baltic 
by his daughter Christina, a remarkable lady, who Nations, 
governed with vigour for ten years after she came of age, and 
then at the age of twenty-eight abdicated in favour of her 
cousin Charles x. Charles was a brilliant soldier, moved by a 
spirit of conquest. He attacked and overran Poland, and was 
attacked in turn by Denmark, which he vanquished in an 
astonishing campaign. His death after a meteoric career in 
1660 was followed by the treaty of Oliva. 

But the man who had really profited by the Swedish king's 
operations was Frederick William, the ' Great Elector ' of 

Brandenburg, who had given Charles support or 

. . • , , • , Brandenburg-, 

opposition strictly with an eye to his own advan- 
tage. Attached to the Electorate of Brandenburg was the 
principality of Prussia beyond the Vistula, formally held by 
the Teutonic Knights, and still subject to the sovereignty of 
Poland. The elector seized his opportunity to procure from 
the King of Poland the release of Prussia from his sovereignty, 
and it thus became his own independent possession. 

Sweden now passed under a regency which after joining the 
Triple Alliance with England and Holland against France in 
1668 was bought over like the English king by Louis four 
years later. Frederick William stood by Holland, and the 
young Swedish King Charles xi., who now took up the govern- 
ment, found himself obliged by the French treaty to invade 
Brandenburg. In an extremely successful campaign the elector 
drove out the Swedes, but was deprived of his subsequent 
conquest of Pomerania by a treaty forced on him by France 
after the Peace of Nimeguen. Still the acquisition of Prussia, 
as an independent possession prepared the way for the future 
power of Brandenburg, though for purposes of consolidation 
she still needed to acquire the territories between Brandenburg 
and Prussia. Charles xi. in Sweden devoted most of his reign 

u • 



3 o6 THE BOURBON AGE 

to consolidating the power of the Crown at the expense of the 
nobles, and to domestic reforms. 

Sweden played and was still to play a dramatic part in 
European politics, though her resources would never have 
Russia's enabled her to secure a lasting position as a first- 

part, class power. But one first-class power was in the 

making in Brandenburg, and another in Russia. Hitherto 
Russia had stood outside the area of civilised Europe. Until 
the end of the fifteenth century she had been under the sway 
of the Mongols. She was cut off from maritime communication 
with the west, which by land she could only reach through 
Poland. When English sailors during the sixteenth century 
found their way from the White Sea to the Court of Ivan the 
Terrible, people in England talked of the ' discovery of Muscovy.' 
She had failed even to reach the Baltic, while the provinces on 
Peter the tne seaDoar d were secured in spite of her efforts 

Great, 1682- by Poland and Sweden. Russian civilisation was 
1725, rudimentary. But in 1682 there succeeded to the 

Russian throne the boy Peter, who seven years later freed him- 
self from all control, and set about the creation of the Russian 
empire. 

Peter was a savage, but he was also a genius. He resolved 
to organise Russia into a state on the western model, and to 
turn a barbarian nation into a civilised power. Russia was 
ignorant of western methods, and Peter resolved to learn them 
in person. He came to Holland and to England to acquire a 
practical knowledge of ship-building as a workman in the Dutch 
and English yards. He returned home and made himself 
complete master of the government by the help of troops 
formed on western models under the command of Scottish 
adventurers of a type common in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries, when the poverty and the turmoils of their native 
land sent Scots abroad in large numbers to seek their fortunes, 
chiefly by the sword as mercenaries. By his Imperial will he 
abolished the customs of centuries, and forced his people to 
adopt those which prevailed among the civilised nations of the 
west. By the strong hand he imposed his own authority and 
supremacy on the Church, and made the Crown as completely 



THE EAST AND THE NORTH 



3°7 



supreme in spiritual as in secular matters. But his grand object 
was to establish himself on the Baltic and to create a naval 
power, ends which could only be compassed at the expense of 
Sweden. He had got his starting-point for naval training when 
he secured Azof on the Black Sea from the Turks. 

Sweden was in possession of nearly all the territories washed 
by the Baltic ; but the populations, Swedish by conquest only, 
were hostile to the Swedish rule. Poland, Branden- Sweden : 
burg, and Denmark were all hungering to recover Charles XII. 
what Sweden had robbed them of. In 1697 a boy of fifteen 
had just ascended the Swedish throne. Peter found his oppor- 
tunity for an alliance with Poland for the partition of the Baltic 
provinces. They were joined by Frederick of Denmark, whose 
desire to annex Holstein was blocked by Sweden. In viewing 
this combination, however, we must note first the absence of 
Brandenburg, whose elector, Frederick, was a less enterprising 
person than his father Frederick William ; and, secondly, that 
the people of Poland and the King of Poland were a long way 
from being in harmony. The great John Sobieski was dead, 
and the Poles had chosen for their king Augustus, the Elector of 
Saxony, who wished to make himself an absolute monarch — the 
main object of every prince at this time — whereas the Polish con- 
stitution designed that the king should be merely a figure-head. 

In 1700 Denmark was on the point of opening the attack 
on Holstein. The Swedish council of regency was alarmed at 
the coalition, and would have conceded everything successes of 
to everybody, if young Charles himself had not Charles, 
grasped the reins of government by a coup-cfetat. Before three 
months had passed he had struck at Copenhagen, and com- 
pelled the King of Denmark to retire from the coalition. Riga, 
attacked by Augustus of Poland, successfully defied the 
assailant, and Charles with supreme audacity flung himself with 
a small body of troops on the Russian hosts which had collected 
at Narva on the Gulf of Finland. The Russians, as yet wholly 
inexperienced and undisciplined, were scattered ; and Charles 
proceeded to sweep the King of Poland's Saxon troops out of 
Livonia. Then he made the mistake of disregarding Russia 
and attacking Poland, demanding the deposition of King 



3 o8 THE BOURBON AGE 

Augustus. The Poles were willing enough to depose Augustus, 
who had no one to fall back on except Russia, the rest of the 
world having for the most part enough on its hands with the 
war of the Spanish succession. But when Charles insisted on 
the election of the Polish noble Stanislaus Leczinski, he threw a 
great many of the other nobles into the arms of the deposed 
ruler. But wherever Charles appeared he was irresistible. 

His next move was to occupy Saxony itself. Augustus was 
obliged to resign the Crown of Poland to Leczinski, though 
he retained the title, and to give up the Russian alliance. It 
was at this time that the operations of the Grand Alliance 
against Louis xiv. were perturbed by the fear that Sweden 
might join with France. 

Meanwhile, however, Peter of Russia had been reorganising 
and drilling his army, and in his turn was overrunning those 
Charles Baltic provinces which had been destined for 

invades Poland. The amazing successes of Charles had 

Russia. been accomplished with very few troops, and he was 

never able to leave a substantial force to hold the territories 
which he conquered with ease. Now, like Napoleon a hundred 
years afterwards, he thought he could bring Russia to her knees 
by marching on Moscow. Peter avoided battle with the great 
captain, but fell with his whole army on the reinforcements 
which were following, of which only a remnant cut its way 
through and joined Charles. Finally, while Charles was besieg- 
ing Pultawa, Peter arrived with an overwhelming 
force and annihilated the Swedish army. Charles, 
who was suffering from a wounded foot, was with difficulty 
extracted by some of his gallant followers, and carried to safety 
across the Turkish border, where he remained for a long time 
engaged in attempts to persuade the Sultan to turn his arms 
against Peter. 

It was not till 1710 that he achieved this object, and in the 
meanwhile Peter had completely secured himself in possession 
Peter and °^ tne P rovm ces on the eastern shores of the 

the Turks, Baltic. When at last the Turks were induced to 
1710- declare war on Russia, Peter advanced against 

them, but found himself trapped and at the mercy of his enemies 



THE EAST AND THE NORTH 309 

on the River Pruth. Instead of annihilating him, however, the 
vizier was content with a treaty which deprived Russia of Azof. 

Charles was only induced to leave Turkey, where he was 
becoming an extremely unwelcome guest, by the news that his 
territories on the German Baltic coast were on the verge of 
being lost. Even his return could not save them. 

It is curious at this point to find Charles and Peter contem- 
plating an alliance under which Peter was to be secured in all 
that he had gained, and was to help Charles in The End of 
the recovery of the German provinces. But the Charles XII. 
schemes of Charles were brought to a sudden end by his 
death before Friederichshalle in Norway, which he 

1718 

had invaded. Its annexation to Sweden was part 
of the scheme in which Peter and certain other powers were 
proposing to act in concert. A further effect of the king's 
death was a domestic revolution in Sweden which ended the 
system of absolutism that Charles xi. had instituted, and placed 
the effective control of the government in the hands of a 
narrow oligarchy. 

The remaining years of Peter's life were spent mainly in 
working out the organisation of the empire he had created, and 
in making the new city of St. Petersburg which The End 
he had founded on the Neva a capital, represen- of Peter the 
tative of new Russia as Moscow stood for the rea ' 
Russia of tradition. In spite of the attempts which were made 
during the three years following his death to 
curtail the royal power, it was completely re- 
established on the accession of his niece the Tsarina Anne. 

English history so far as it was directly connected with 
continental affairs has been included in the narrative of the 
last chapter. Our domestic history however has 3. England 
its bearings on history at large, and requires to and Scotland, 
be sketched here along with that of the other northern powers. 

The Restoration of 1660 placed Charles 11. on the throne, 
just at the time when his cousin Louis was on the point of 
assuming active control in France. He returned The 
to England on terms which secured to parliament Restoration, 
a command of the purse so complete as to ensure to it ultimate 



3 io THE BOURBON AGE 

control of the government. The king set himself to obtain 
from his cousin of France supplies which would render him 
independent of parliament, but until this could be accomplished 
he could only carry out plans of his own by cajoling or hood- 
winking parliament into supporting them. Whenever parlia- 
ment made up its mind to a particular course, he submitted 
gracefully. But in the long-run he got his money out of the 
French king, though he declined to run risks in carrying out 
his own side of the bargain with Louis. During the last years of 
his life he was able to dispense with parliament, and to secure 
the succession of his brother James. 

Charles always stopped short of personally outraging public 
feeling, when he overrode the law or wrested it to suit his own 
purposes. James seemed to miss no opportunity 
of arousing every kind of antagonism to himself. 
He forced into opposition those very elements in the country 
which were naturally most loyal to the Crown. The division of 
parliament into two great parties, named Whigs and Tories, had 
taken shape in the reign of Charles n. But the Tories and 
Churchmen who had supported the accession of James joined 
with the Whigs and the Nonconformists who had endeavoured 
to prevent it, in calling William of Orange to the throne in his 
place. 

William retained for the Crown during his life-time the real 
sovereignty, because, in spite of his unpopularity, he was indis- 
pensable to the nation, and in the last resort could 
William III. *, , \ ~ ' , 

threaten to resign the Crown and go back to 

Holland; but if parliament had been prepared to face that 
alternative, it held in its hands the power to compel the Crown 
to obey its wishes, and generally speaking William had no 
desire to override its wishes so long as he managed foreign 
policy. 

When William died parliament had still not fully realised its 

own strength, and the system of party government — that is, of 

ministers chosen from the party in a majority in the 

House of Commons — was not fully established. 

Even while Anne reigned, it was by the personal power of the 

queen that Marlborough first ruled the country and was then 



THE EAST AND THE NORTH 311 

overthrown. But parliament had secured the succession of the 
house of Hanover after her death ; and when King George 
ascended the throne in 17 14, the supremacy of parliament and 
party government was immediately established. 

One other event of vital importance took place during Anne's 
reign. This was the incorporation by treaty of England and 
Scotland as a single kingdom with one legislature Tne Union, 
and one crown ; for hitherto there had been nothing 1707 - 
to prevent either kingdom from changing the line of succession 
to its own throne. Also the incorporation, by removing com- 
mercial distinctions between the two countries, hitherto a grave 
impediment to Scottish industries and commerce, sowed the seed 
of Scotland's financial prosperity in the future, though nearly 
half a century elapsed before the result was fully realised. 
Henceforth, instead of the kingdoms of England and Scotland 
there is a single power, that of Great Britain. 

The accession of the house of Hanover definitely established 
the principle that there is no unalterable law of succession in 
England. Its course was fixed by an act of parlia- The 
ment sanctioned by the Crown which precluded any Hanoverian 
Roman Catholic from sitting on the throne. This Succession, 
settled the succession on Sophia, the grand-daughter of James 1. 
and daughter of the Elector Palatine, whose Catholic descend- 
ants were barred equally with the exiled Stuarts. Her husband, 
the Duke of Hanover, had been made a ninth Elector of the 
empire ; whence she is known as the Electress Sophia. Hence 
it was actually her son George, the Elector of Hanover, who 
succeeded to the English throne on the death of Queen 
Anne. 

For a little more than thirty years longer the claims of the 
exiled Stuarts of the English throne served not only to compli- 
cate English politics, but also as a not very power- 

° . , . . . . . f , Jacobitism. 

ful weapon in the hands of her enemies abroad. 

Ministers in England could never feel quite free from the fear 
of a possible restoration ; while on the other hand the Han- 
overian kings knew that they were in England only on sufferance, 
and could never set themselves in opposition to the will of 
parliament. By this means that constitutional government 



3i2 THE BOURBON AGE 

was established which excited such enthusiastic admiration in 
the minds of political philosophers during the eighteenth cen- 
tury, when Great Britain possessed the only strong government 
in Europe which did not rest upon the absolute power of the 
Crown. 



CHAPTER XXIII 



INDIA 



Hitherto we have only on rare occasions made reference to 
India and the far east, since those regions have hardly come into 
touch with the story of the western nations. Now, however, we 
are approaching a point where influence and dominion in India 
become a prominent source of rivalry between European states, 
and we must trace the past history of the great peninsula. 

In one of the earliest chapters we recorded the great Aryan 
immigration, which in course of time dominated all but the most 
inaccessible regions between the sea and the 1.2000 B.C. 
mountains which cut India off from the rest of the tol00 ° AD - 
world. The Aryan invaders, disciplined and organised hosts, 
regarded their predecessors in the land with contempt, as an 
altogether inferior race, whom they forced into The Aryan 
servitude. They themselves were the ' twice- conquest, 
born,' the rest were the 'once-born,' a caste apart, degraded 
and degrading. At a very early stage the twice-born themselves 
were divided into three castes : the Brahmans, the priesthood 
who held the keys of religious knowledge and culture in general ; 
the Kshatryas, the warriors and men of action whose war- 
leaders were the princes ; the Vaisyas or industrial class, inferior 
to the other two, yet having a great gulf fixed between them and 
the Sudras, the lower conquered race. 

At first the division was not altogether rigid. The older 
barbarians were occasionally strong enough to win temporary 
recognition, even to the extent of matrimonial strife of 
alliances. The blood of the twice-born was not Castes, 
kept altogether pure ; in fact, it is probable that the ' religious 

313 



INDIA 315 

sanction' of the division, the doctrine of the twice-born and the 
once-born, was developed after the first immigration. The 
hymns and epic poems from which we derive our earliest know- 
ledge say nothing of caste. But the next group of poems, the 
Mahabharata, are clearly the outcome of a period when the 
military and the learned castes had not only taken shape, but were 
carrying on a long and severe struggle for supremacy, in which 
the priestly caste was successful. It was somewhat as though 
the papacy in mediaeval Europe had achieved the highest 
dreams of Innocent in. or Boniface viii., and compelled secular 
kings and nobles to submit to it. Later still — perhaps about 
1000 B.C. — the fully developed system is expressed in the code 
of Manu. 

The four castes now were rigidly defined and kept apart ; the 
distinction of classes was not merely a social one which could 
be overcome ; it was fundamental, the breaches of The Ancient 
it carrying severe religious penalties. It must not Caste 
be forgotten, however, that the Brahmans were the ys em * 
sons of Brahmans ; the caste was not artificially produced like 
the celibate ecclesiastical orders of the Christian Church ; it 
was hereditary, like the others. The fact remains that there 
were long periods when the strictness of the law was relaxed, 
so that in later ages the purity of Kshatrya (otherwise called 
Rajput) blood became questionable among most of the self-styled 
Rajputs, and this was still more the case with the Vaisya. 
Moreover, all the four castes became subdivided into innumer- 
able hereditary castes divided for matrimonial and other 
purposes by almost impenetrable barriers. 

The caste system, however, as Europeans have known it in 
India, was a much later development. The old Brahmanism 
was shaken to its foundations by the rise and Buddhism, 
expansion of Buddhism about the sixth century 600 B.C. 
B.C. ; while the lower classes, forbidden to search into the 
mysteries of religious knowledge, naturally sought satisfaction in 
absorbing the superstitions of the conquered peoples. In time 
Buddhism expanded beyond the borders of India, and spread all 
over the far east till its votaries became perhaps more numerous 
than those of any other cult in the world. But within India the 



316 THE BOURBON AGE 

old religion reasserted itself, taking shape in the Hinduism 
which is still dominant; to the multitude, a materialistic 
polytheism worshipping countless grotesque deities ; to the few, a 
subtle and absorbing philosophy; to all, a faith having not a few 
precepts or ordinances which can be broken only at infinite risk 
to body and soul. 

We cannot attempt any examination or summary of the 
Buddhism by which Brahmanism was temporarily eclipsed. 
500 B.C. to But for a time it destroyed the predominance of 
300 B.c. the caste system, and there arose kingdoms and 

empires under princes who were neither Brahmans nor Rajputs. 
About the time when Buddhism was born, the north-west of 
India came in contact with the newly risen power beyond the 
mountains; Cyrus possibly, Darius certainly, sent expeditions 
which penetrated into the Punjab, and claimed sovereignty — in 
other words, tribute. Herodotus describes an ' Indian ' con- 
tingent — not at all recognisable — as present with the great army 
of Xerxes when he invaded Hellas. Alexander the Great broke 
through the barrier, and met with a stubborn resistance in the 
land of the Five Rivers, but his troops would follow him no further. 
The Greeks did not at once evacuate the country completely, 
but never exercised more than a nominal sway. Not long after 
we have authentic knowledge of the great kingdom of Magadha, 
the prototype of the empires which had their seat at the city of 
Delhi on the Jumna, the most westerly of the Ganges river-group. 

In Magadha reigned the great prince Chandragupta, with 
whom Seleucus found it better to establish friendly relations 
Asoka, than to wage war. Practically, he was monarch or 

250 B.C. emperor of all Hindustan (the northern half of 

India) ; and of all ancient rulers in India the greatest was his 
grandson Asoka, who ruled between 270 and 230 B.C. He was a 
prince of the type of Alfred the Great or St. Louis, who won the 
reverence and even the submission of his neighbours by the 
pure nobility of his character no less than by his wisdom. 

A Scythian invasion and occupation of the Punjab in the first 
century B.C. is held to have left distinct traces among the peoples 
of that region. But Indian history relapses into a general vague- 
ness. A great Maghada kingdom is again distinguishable after 



INDIA 3 i 7 

the third century a.d. ; and then about the sixth century, a great 
Hindu kingdom in the Deccan, the plateau of Southern India ; 
a kingdom which later split in two. The thou- a Thousand 
sand years between 500 B.C. and 500 a.d., and the Years, 
ensuing period in the south, are probably the era during which 
fusion between the Aryans and their predecessors was carried 
furthest. The completeness of the early conquest in the Indus 
and Ganges basins had already reduced the previous population 
to such a condition of serfdom that there was less tendency to 
amalgamation in that area, and it remained essentially the land 
of the Hindus, Hindustan, where Brahmans and Rajputs still 
maintain a claim to unsullied descent. 

Some considerable time before 1000 a.d. Buddhism was already 
disappearing before the later Hinduism, the corrupt offspring of 
the ancient Brahmanism with its ugly admixture Hinduism 
of demon worship and other superstitions borrowed established, 
from the old Dravidian populations ; the more readily, because 
Buddhism itself was suffering from corruptions. We have already 
seen how Islam made conquest of all Western Asia as well as of 
North Africa, and even of Spain, in the seventh and eighth 
centuries ; but though the Arabs did occasionally penetrate India's 
mountain barrier, there was no effective invasion till Mahmud of 
Ghazni's first great incursion in 1001 a.d., when that great captain 
found himself opposed by Rajput armies as passionately attached 
to their own Hindu creed as were his followers to Islam. 

Year after year Mahmud hurled his armies into the Punjab, 
ravaging and spoiling as far south as Somnath in Gujerat, but 
otherwise confining his operations to the lands 2 The 
watered by the Indus and its tributaries. He did Mohammedan 
not organise his conquest, beyond leaving garrisons Asce ndency. 
under military governors ; the Indian territory was only an out- 
lying province of his empire. But when his successors lost their 
dominions, they still for a time retained possession of the 
Punjab, in which there was now a military Mohammedan 
population of mixed Turks and Afghans, lording it over the 
Hindus whom they held in subjection. Towards the end of the 
twelfth century the Ghazni dynasty was finally overthrown by 
another Afghan dynasty, that of Ghor. 



3 i8 THE BOURBON AGE 

The Ghori monarch extended the Mohammedan sway over all 
Hindustan, not without long and fierce struggles with the Rajput 
The Ghori princes. But there was no single Hindu empire to 
Dynasty. face their attack, no united resistance. Kutb ed-din, 

the great captain of the Ghori monarch Moizz ed-din, carried 
the conquering arms of Islam as far as Benares on the Ganges, 
and 'the borders of Bengal. Kutb ed-din himself was a Turk, 
originally a slave of Moizz ed-din, who had risen to his high 
position in virtue of his talents. It is not unusual in the east to 
find slaves thus elevated to offices of trust ; for any member of 
the reigning family, or any great noble in such a position, was 
exceedingly apt to utilise it in order to seize the throne for 
himself. A slave, whose power was derived entirely from royal 
favour, was far less dangerous ; yet not a few slaves were able in 
this way to snatch a crown when the ruler's death left rivals 
striving for the succession. 

Such an opportunity occurred soon after the death of Moizz 
ed-din, Kutb ed-din seized the throne and ruled vigorously for 
The Slave a short time. Throughout the thirteenth century 
Dynasty. the 'Slave' dynasty held sway, with its seat of 

government at Delhi ; strictly, it was not a dynasty, since more 
than once another slave-captain ejected the heir of his 
predecessor. One of the most vigorous was Altamsh, whose 
judicious attitude towards Genghis Khan, the great Mongol 
conqueror, saved India from being devastated by the hordes 
which defiance would have brought down on Hindustan. 
Altamsh, when the Mongol had turned his attention to other 
regions, subdued all resistance and made himself master of all 
Northern India. Both Altamsh and Balban — another slave who 
had been Grand Vizier or first minister and then secured the 
Crown — were able rulers, whose courts won a high reputation for 
their intellectual character ; as had been notably the case with 
Mahmud of Ghazni. 

It was not a slave but a Turk noble — that is, a noble of 
Turkish descent — who secured the Crown of Delhi soon after the 
The Khilji death of Balban. The first ruler of the new Khilji 
Dynasty. dynasty, Feroz Shah, routed an invasion of the 

Mongols whose power had now broken up, but was soon after- 



INDIA 



3*9 



wards murdered. The Crown was seized by his nephew Ala ed- 
din, who took the name Mohammed Shah. He was the first 
who extended the Mohammedan empire of Delhi 

r , V, n 1296. 

over a substantial portion of the Deccan and 
ultimately over the whole peninsula. It must be remembered 
that the Mohammedan Turks and Afghans were a military ruling 
race, who held sway over the Hindus as subjects without inter- 
mixture, in virtue of their military organisation. To the Hindu 
they were out-caste, once-born like any Sudra ; while to them the 
Hindus were heathen idolaters. Direct persecution, however, 
was not habitual, and a gradual fusion of manners and customs 
was in progress. 

Once more a new dynasty arose after Mohammed's death, 
beginning with another Turk slave. The Tughlak emperors 
ruled for nearly a century. The second of the line The La t er 
was Mohammed Tughlak, half genius and half Kingdoms, 
madman. One of his crazy schemes was an 13211525 - 
invasion of China across the Himalayas by a great army which 
perished in the mountain passes as utterly as the Grand Army 
of Napoleon's Moscow expedition. But the empire 
fell to pieces after the reign of his wise successor, 
Feroz Shah, who could not stop the disintegration, which was 
completed by the invasion of Tamerlane. On this occasion 
Delhi was sacked, and the inhabitants massacred. The Lodi 
dynasty, which succeeded the Tughlak, scarcely held dominion 
outside the Delhi district ; though in the second half of the 
fifteenth century Bahlul Lodi and his son again more or less 
subjugated Northern Hindustan. 

Meantime in the Deccan the governors, who for a time con- 
tinued to profess allegiance to the Lodi emperors, declared their 
independence; about 1480 the Bahmani dynasty, The Deccan 
resting on the support of the Turk and Afghan Kingdoms. 
soldiery, ruled over nearly all the Deccan. Then this great 
empire in its turn broke up into the several kingdoms of Bijanagar, 
Bijapur, Ahmednagar, and Golconda. Of these the first is dis- 
tinguished as being Hindu, not Mohammedan, and also as proving 
itself at once the strongest and intellectually the foremost. All 
of these survived until the latter end of the seventeenth century. 



3 2o THE BOURBON AGE 

At the beginning of the sixteenth century the Portuguese had 
just opened up the route round South Africa to the Indian 
Ocean, and at once established their supremacy or empire in the 
eastern seas. On the Persian Gulf, at Goa on the west coast of 
India, and elsewhere, they fixed their fortified ports, but they 
made no attempt to set up a dominion on the land. The begin- 
nings of European conquest were still two and a half centuries 
away in the future. But the sixteenth century witnessed an- 
other conquest of great importance. The most picturesque of 
3 The great adventurers, Babar the Turk, a descendant 

Moguls: of Tamerlane, founded the Mongol or Mughal 

Babar. dynasty, best known in its Anglicised form as that 

of the Moguls, his mother coming from that division of the Mon- 
golian races to which the name Mongol is specially appropriated. 
Expelled while a boy from his own dominions in the regions 
east of the Caspian sea, he found his way to Afghanistan, where 
he made himself king at Kabul ; and set out to conquer India 
with a force of five and twenty thousand men, who 
were ready to follow their hero through fire and 
water. At Panipat, near Delhi — having overrun the Punjab — 
he smote the great army of the last of the Lodi kings of Delhi. 
He smote also the Hindu princes of Rajputana in a series of 
campaigns abounding in picturesque episodes, and swept down 
the plain of the Ganges, routing great hosts with, comparatively 
speaking, a handful of men. Five years after his first in- 
vasion he died, leaving the empire of all Hindustan to his son 
Humayun. 

Both Mohammedans and Hindus were eager to drive out the 
new conquerors. Led by a Mohammedan chief, who afterwards 
assumed the title of Sher Shah, they expelled Hum- 
ayun and his Afghans in 1540, and Sher Shah ruled 
with power and ability over Hindustan. But he failed to establish 
a strong dynasty. Sher Shah died; Humayun returned from 
Afghanistan and recaptured Delhi. Then he too died. But his 
Turk vizier Bairam completed the Mogul restoration by another 
victory at Panipat, won in the name of Humayun's 
son Akbar. For four years he ruled for the boy who 
had been left to his loyal guardianship ; then Akbar suddenly, 



INDIA 



321 



though still a boy, seized the reins of government for himself. 
His rule, which ended with his death in 1605, was almost exactly 
contemporary with that of Queen Elizabeth. 

A soldier and statesman, a lover of learning and philosophy, 
daring to recklessness, boundlessly generous, a ruler who enjoyed 
his own life to the uttermost, yet made the welfare Akbar, 1556- 
of his countless subjects his supreme aim, Akbar is 1605 - 
one of the most splendid and attractive figures in history. An 
avowed but very unorthodox Mohammedan, he instituted the 
practice of making in effect no distinction in his treatment of 
Hindu and Moslem. No oriental monarch could abstain from 
conquest, and he extended his dominion from Kabul on the 
north-west to the mouth of the Ganges, and over most of Central 
India, yet not so much as to be beyond control. Order, justice, 
prosperity, and comparative peace marked his long reign. 

There was a falling off in the reign of his son, Jehangir, in 
whose day the English East India Company, chartered in 1600, 
obtained from a native prince its first trading 
station at Surat on the west coast, and the first e angir# 
English envoy visited the court of the Great Mogul, the most 
magnificent in the world. Corruption was then shah 
already setting in among the governing classes. Jehan. 
Jehangir's son Shah Jehan was a more worthy descendant of his 
grandfather, and in his time the splendour of the Moguls reached 
its highest point. He built one of the most beautiful buildings 
in the world, the Taj Mahal at Agra. The principle of tolera- 
tion, of treating the whole empire as one, was on the whole 
maintained through these reigns. 

But after Shah Jehan came Aurangzib, a sort of counterpart 
to Philip 11. of Spain ; a fanatical Moslem who oppressed the 
Hindus and revived the old antagonism of races and religions. 
Half his long reign, which ended in 1707, was spent 
on a very incomplete subjugation of the Deccan, uran £ zl • 
where all the kingdoms which had flourished for the last two 
centuries were overthrown. But the seeds of disintegration were 
sown. Sivaji, a Hindu adventurer of extraordinary ability, united 
the Maratha peoples occupying the hill-country of the western 
Deccan, and made them into a tremendous power, though 

x 



3 22 THE BOURBON AGE 

nominally recognising the sovereignty of the Mogul. Afghan- 
istan had been lost, to Persia, in the reign of Shah Jehan. On 
Aurangzib's death the empire practically fell to pieces. Under 
the later Imperial system, it was divided into huge provinces, 
whose governors or viceroys made themselves virtually inde- 
pendent, the sovereignty of the Moguls who followed each other 
Break up of * n Quick succession being more shadowy than that 
the Mogul of the German emperor over the German princes. 
Empire. Q ne v i cer0 y ru l e d nominally over the whole Deccan, 

though the Maratha confederacy did much as they chose on the 
west and all through Central India. Rajput princes held sway 
in Rajputana; the Ganges basin was divided between two 
Mohammedan viceroys, and anarchy prevailed in the Punjab, 
through which Nadir Shah from Persia swooped down on Delhi 
in 1739, dealing the last fatal blow to the Moguls, though they 
still remained sovereigns in the theory of Indian law. 

Such was the state of India in 1740 : when the English were 
in possession of three main trading stations, at Calcutta, at 
Madras, and at Bombay ; and the French, who had entered on 
the commercial competition at the initiative of Colbert, the 
minister of Louis xiv., had their rival stations near Calcutta and 
Madras, at Chandernagore and Pondicherry. The moment of the 
struggle for European ascendency was at hand. 




Emery Walker s£» 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 

After the death of Louis xiv. European affairs assumed a 
new aspect. With a young child on the French throne and 
l. The tne nearest prince of the blood on the Spanish 

Situation. throne, there was clearly danger of a disputed 
succession in spite of the most formal renunciations on the 
part of the Spanish king. Hence the regent, whose claims 
stood first under International treaties, had all his 
interest engaged in maintaining those treaties ; as 
had also the Hanoverian king on the British throne, and the 
Whigs who had put him there. Hence for some years to 
come the French and British governments remained in close 
alliance, and in antagonism to the Bourbon monarchy in 
Spain, which had obvious reasons for wishing the treaty settle- 
ments to be set aside. 

The King of Spain married an ambitious and energetic wife 
when his first wife died, and by her supreme influence the 
Spanish affairs were placed under the control of 
Alberoni. an ener g et i c an( j ambitious minister, Alberoni. 
Alberoni wished to restore the power of Spain, and to recover 
the Italian kingdoms which were now in the possession of the 
emperor Charles vi. With astonishing vigour he bent his mind 
to restoring the Spanish navy, and to intriguing for a great 
combination against the now united powers of England and 
France, which should bring about a Stuart restoration and a 
revision of the Utrecht treaties. His schemes were wrecked 
partly by the death of Charles xn. of Sweden and partly 
because, in an engagement brought on without any formal 

324 



THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 325 

declaration of war, the British fleet completely annihilated the 
new Spanish fleet off Cape Passaro. At the same time Prince 
Eugene finished the Turkish War by the battle of Belgrade, and 
set the Imperial troops free to act unhampered in Italy. Alberoni 
was compelled to retire, and disappeared into private life. With 
him disappeared the short-lived energy of Spain. 

But the young King of France grew up, and with his marriage 
to a daughter of Stanislaus, the ex-king of Poland, who had 
been ejected as soon as Charles xn. was unable Fleury and 
to support him, the question of the French Walpole. 
succession seemed likely to settle itself — to the exclusion 
both of the Spanish Bourbons and of the house of Orleans. 
Louis placed himself in the hands of Cardinal Fleury as his 
chief minister ; Fleury in France, and Walpole, who became 
virtually the dictator of British policy, exerted their united 
influence to maintain the European peace in face of the still 
active antagonism between Spain and Austria. 

Fleury however entered upon that secret agreement with 
Spain known as the Family Compact, which was directed ulti- 
mately against Austria in the first place and Great Britain in 
the second, with the object of making the Bourbon family 
paramount in Europe. 

We are occasionally told that monarchs and dynasties are of 
very little real importance, and that history is a matter of 
inevitable movements and the life of peoples. 2. Dynasties 
Nevertheless, it is an unhappy truth that move- and Wars. 
ments are considerably affected by wars, and that during a good 
many centuries dynastic questions and the personality of 
monarchs brought about the wars of which the results occasion- 
ally depended on the military skill of commanders who happened 
to be in control of the armies. In the period in which we 
have recently been dealing, the great war of the Spanish 
succession was directly dynastic. It arose because the house 
of Hapsburg and the house of Bourbon each desired to 
possess itself of Spain ; England intervened, because the French 
king came to recognise the exiled Stuart as King of England. 

We are now coming to another group of wars. To-day we 
can look back and see that a great contest between France 



3^6 THE BOURBON AGE 

and England- was what we must call inevitable, not on dynastic 
grounds, but because the two nations were not prepared to go 
shares in India and in North America. It was also extremely 
improbable that the long-standing dispute between England 
and Spain over the right to trade in South America would 
have got settled without war, but even here it was dynastic 
rather than national considerations which caused Spain and 
Wars of the France to unite against England. Yet this was a 
Eighteenth war in which the rest of Europe had no interest. 
en ury. rp^ e regt ^ £ ur0 p e was fighting over the question 

of the Austrian succession. In that war there was one com- 
batant who cared nothing whatever about the succession 
question, but was playing entirely for the extension and 
security of his own dominion. But for the personality of 
this one man, Frederick the Great, the war would not have 
had the same effect on Europe ; but owing to his personality 
Prussia emerged at the end as a first-class military power. This 
group of wars in its second stage, called the Seven Years' War, 
became resolved into a struggle for life and for empire, no 
longer dynastic in its motives. But even before this group of 
wars began there was another dynastic war of succession in 
which most of Europe managed to involve itself, though the 
stubborn determination of Walpole kept Great Britain free 
from it ; so that she waxed in wealth, while the rest of the 
nations were exhausting themselves, and so was better able 
than any of them to endure the strain when she herself 
was ultimately plunged into war. 

Augustus of Saxony and Poland wanted his son to succeed 
him on the Polish throne. His old riv^il, Stanislaus Leczinski, 
The Polish now father-in-law of the King of France, wanted the 
Succession, succession for himself. The powers for their own 

1733. 

ends took one side or the other. But for the 
anxiety of the emperor Charles vi. as to the succession to his 
own dominions, there would probably have been no general con- 
flagration, since Russia was quite determined that the second 
Augustus of Saxony should be king, and F ranee was only half- 
hearted in supporting Leczinski. But Charles wished his own 
daughter Maria Theresa to succeed to the Austrian inheritance, 



THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 327 

although certain portions of it descended only through heirs 
male, and would otherwise not have come to him at all. He 
issued a decree called the Pragmatic Sanction, making his 
daughter his heir. He persuaded most of the powers to 
guarantee the Pragmatic Sanction, and to procure this guarantee 
from Saxony he promised Augustus his support. France and 
Spain, now closely drawn together by dynastic considerations, 
saw their opportunity for striking at the Hapsburg domination 
in Italy. The result of all the fighting in this war of the Polish 
succession was, that Augustus got Poland, a Bourbon prince got 
Naples and Sicily, France by a somewhat complicated process 
got Lorraine, whose duke took Tuscany in compensation and 
married Charles vi.'s daughter ; and Austria got practically the 
whole north of Italy including Tuscany. Also the guarantee to 
the Pragmatic Sanction was renewed. 

We saw that the Great Elector laid the foundations of the 
power of Brandenburg. He had done so partly by getting into 
his own hands the absolute control of the hetero- Birth of the 
geneous collection of provinces which formed his Prussian 
dominion. His son Frederick 1. obtained from the 
emperor the royal title as King of Prussia. Frederick's son 
Frederick William 1. abstained from war, and was an exceedingly 
rigid economist ; but he devoted himself especially to organis- 
ing and perfecting his army. His son Frederick 11. was to make 
that army the most powerful in Europe in spite of its compara- 
tively small numbers. 

In 1740 Frederick William died and was succeeded by 
Frederick 11. In the same year Charles vi. died, the Austrian 
succession was claimed by his daughter Maria Theresa 3. war of the 
and her husband Francis — formerly of Lorraine, now Austrian 
of Tuscany. The Bavarian elector asserted his own 
claim, and the powers in general tore up their guarantees 
of the Pragmatic Sanction. 

Frederick had a claim to the duchy of Silesia on the north-east 
of Bohemia. He threw his troops into Silesia, and announced 
to Maria Theresa that he would support the Pragmatic Sanction 
in arms if she would hand over the province. Maria Theresa 
declined Frederick's offer. The battle of Mollwitz in the follow- 



328 THE BOURBON AGE 

ing April demonstrated the superiority of the Prussian troops 
drilled and armed under the system of Frederick William. A 
military force of unknown capacity had thus been added to the 
circle of Maria Theresa's enemies, at whose front stood the 
Elector of Bavaria with his claim of succession both to the 
Austrian inheritance and to the empire. Spain supported 
Bavaria, but she was already plunged in a war with Great 
Britain over commercial quarrels in South American Seas ; while 
her adversary had command of the sea, and so cut her off from 
the rest of Europe. Great Britain was on the side of Maria 
Theresa, partly as a matter of good faith ; and partly because, 
her king being elector of Hanover, she could hardly help being 
on the same side as Hanover on any question in which she 
intervened. 

But for France the war might not have become general ; but 
here an aggressive party became dominant which proposed to 
France, partition the Austrian inheritance on the broad 

Britain, and principle of France taking the Netherlands, Spain 
and Savoy or Sardinia sharing Italy, and Bavaria 
taking Bohemia with the Imperial Crown. Throughout the war 
it was the main object of England and Hanover to separate 
Frederick from the alliance by persuading Maria Theresa to con- 
cede his claims in Silesia ; because King George was very much 
afraid that otherwise Frederick might invade Hanover. On this 
point, however, Maria Theresa would not give way. The one 
stroke of policy on her part was the winning of the enthusiastic 
support of Hungary, hitherto exceedingly turbulent and un- 
manageable, by the concession of constitutional privileges 
persistently demanded but till this time withheld. Nevertheless, 
the forces allied against the Austrian queen seemed so over- 
whelming that before the end of 1741 she consented to buy off 
Frederick by ceding Lower Silesia. 

His withdrawal was brief ; for the allies captured Prague, and 
a palace-revolution in Russia placed on the throne the Tsarina 
Elizabeth, who was inclined to a French alliance. Frederick 
thought there was more to be gained by again joining the allies. 
After another victory in 1742, however, he obtained terms from 
the Austrian queen with which he was satisfied, and he again 



THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 329 

retired. Meanwhile the Elector of Bavaria had become emperor 
as Charles vn. 

It is not necessary to follow the fluctuating fortunes of the 
war. The really decisive event was the death of Charles vn. in 
1745, which secured the Imperial succession to the Later Events 
husband of Maria Theresa, and in effect withdrew of the War. 
Bavaria from the struggle. An episode of great importance to 
Great Britain followed, in the enterprise of Charles Edward 
Stuart, who made a daring attempt to recover the British Crown. 
Its failure for ever removed the danger of further attempts at 
a Stuart restoration, and paved the way for making the union 
between England and Scotland a real unification of those 
kingdoms. The war dragged on chiefly because of Maria 
Theresa's vain hope of recovering Silesia. The general exhaus- 
tion brought it to an end in 1748 with the treaty 
of Aix-la-Chapelle. Under it practically all parties 
resigned all conquests, and the European territories stood again 
as they had stood when the war began, except that Prussia 
retained its hold on Silesia. Francis 1. was acknowledged as 
emperor, and the Austrian succession in accordance with the 
Pragmatic Sanction was accepted. 

The war of the Austrian succession had been merely pre- 
liminary to another great war. It had sharpened the hostility 
of English and French colonists in America and of 4. Another War 
English and French in India. It had weakened imminent, 
the longstanding alliance of Great Britain with Austria, and had 
left Maria Theresa still determined to take vengeance on Prussia, 
and to recover Silesia; while Frederick's achievements had 
raised him to a position alarming to most of the other princes 
of Germany. Another war between Austria and Prussia and 
between France and Great Britain was inevitable, but how the 
opposing forces might combine was not equally clear. 

For a hundred years past English colonies had been develop- 
ing in North America from Florida on the south up to the St. 
Lawrence. France, by the treaty of Utrecht, had Rivalries in 
ceded Acadia, but had been developing her own America, 
colony of Canada north of the St. Lawrence ; and she had 
planted another colony south-west of the English in Louisiana. 



33© THE BOURBON AGE 

On the strength of this and of her explorations she claimed the 
whole basin of the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers, as well as the 
St. Lawrence ; a claim which, if conceded, would have entirely 
precluded the expansion of the British westwards. On the other 
hand British expansion would have precluded any French expan- 
sion south of the St. Lawrence, and there was no compromising 
the difficulty. 

In India neither French nor English were territorial powers, 
but they had nearly the whole of the trade between them, and 

. _. . . each wanted to eject the other. The French were 
And m India. . _ . , .,.,,,_. 

the first to perceive that with the Mogul Empire 

tumbling to pieces it would not be difficult for a European power 
which had no rival to acquire an ascendency. When the war 
of the Austrian succession broke out the French opened an 
attack on the British. The European war was stopped by the 
peace, but it was effectively continued in India by the two 
parties taking sides in dynastic struggles among the native 
princes. In the years which immediately follow the Peace of 
Aix-la-Chapelle, the success which had formerly lain rather 
with the French passed to the British, mainly owing to the 
genius of Robert Clive. 

The struggle was in fact confined to the southern part of 
India, the home governments of Great Britain and France 
taking no part. It is absolutely clear that whenever the home 
governments should take an active part, the victory would go to 
British tne one wmcn > holding command of the sea, should 

Dominion be able to supply reinforcements. As soon as the 
in ndia. twQ nat j ons were at war a g a i n it became abundantly 

clear that the British had that power and were absolutely certain 
to win. Again it lay with Robert Clive to demonstrate that if 
the French were once out of the way the British could make 
themselves the paramount power in India. This was proved 
by a punitive expedition undertaken by Clive in 1757 against 
the Nawab of Bengal, on account of a horrible outrage com- 
mitted upon the small British community at Calcutta. Clive 
with some three thousand men routed an army nearly twenty 
times as large. Bengal acknowledged him as its master, the 
British East India Company at once became a great territorial 



THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 331 

power, and the foundations of British supremacy were securely 
laid. It only remained to administer the coup de grace to the 
French rivalry at the battle of Wandewash in 1760. 

Nearly four years before Wandewash the great Seven Years' 
War had broken out in Europe. While British and French 
colonists were quarrelling in America, Maria Theresa's minister 
Kaunitz was scheming for a coalition against Frederick of 
Prussia. Great Britain had no hostility towards The Powers 
Austria ; but though her King George n. might combine for 
as Elector of Hanover be inclined to support the War " 
Imperial house against his dangerous Prussian neighbour, that 
was rather a reason for Great Britain refusing to join an anti- 
Prussian combination. Nothing was more certain to raise an 
outcry in England than a suspicion that the British nation was 
being dragged into a war in the interests of Hanover. Kaunitz 
was secure of the alliance of Saxony lying on the south of the 
Prussian kingdom ; and also of Russia, whose Tsarina Elizabeth 
had taken mortal offence at sundry sarcasms which the Prussian 
king had uttered about her. But this did not satisfy Kaunitz, 
who wanted to secure French support ; and for the recovery of 
Silesia he was willing to make concessions to France. Louis xv. 
was completely under the influence of Madame de Pompadour, 
whom Frederick had offended as he had Elizabeth of Russia. 
Spain was now under a peaceful sovereign Ferdinand vi., and 
would not be drawn into any warlike complications. Thus the 
circumstances drew the two necessarily hostile powers of Great 
Britain and France into alliance with Prussia and Austria 
respectively; reversing the old European position, in which 
the Bourbons had always been opposed to the Hapsburgs and 
Great Britain had been habitually on the side of the Hapsburgs. 

In the w T ar which followed, breaking out in 1756, Great 
Britain after the first year devoted herself almost entirely to 
the maritime and colonial war with France. She 5. The Seven 
supplied contingents to the forces which held Years' War. 
Hanover against French invasion, but otherwise she abstained 
almost entirely from military operations, while she poured into 
the coffers of the Prussian king the subsidies which enabled 
him to maintain his resistance to the great circle of his foes. 



332 THE BOURBON AGE 

France on the other hand expended her energies on maintain- 
ing great armies in the field which exhausted her powers. The 
rivalry between France and Great Britain was entirely one for 
empire over-seas, and inevitably the decisive factor therein was 
supremacy on the sea. This was fully realised by the great minister 
William Pitt, while it was ignored by King Louis. But though 
Great Britain fought France on the seas, she rendered great 
service to Frederick in his desperate struggle, not only by 
supplying him with funds but also by keeping inactive, though 
in arms, French troops which had to be held in readiness to 
face possible invasion on the French coast. 

In fact Great Britain and France began fighting on their own 
account before the Continental War opened. There had been 
1756, War a considerable display of naval preparations, 
begins. extremely alarming to the British, at Brest and 

Dunkirk ; but it was from Toulon that the French fleet 
suddenly sailed for Minorca, which, like Gibraltar, had been a 
British possession since the treaty of Utrecht. The English 
Admiral Byng was shot for failing to relieve Minorca, which 
surrendered almost immediately ; after which, war was openly 
declared. The event hastened the other negotiations which 
were still going on. Frederick received information that the 
dismemberment of Prussia was designed. He resolved to strike 
first, and for strategic reasons chose Saxony, lying between 
Prussia and Bohemia, as the first object of attack. He marched 
upon Dresden, where he obtained documentary proofs of the 
conspiracy against Prussia, which he published. But Saxony 
had to be thoroughly neutralised before he could venture on 
the advance into Bohemia which was his main object, and the 
Saxons resisted long enough to compel him to defer the 
invasion till next year. 

In 1757 the war was in full swing. Hanover would have 
liked to stand neutral, but was compelled to join Frederick. 
The War The king had to maintain himself in the territory 

in 1757. comprising Hanover, Prussia with Silesia, and 

Saxony. From the north-east he was threatened by Russia, 
from the south by Austria, and along the whole line of the 
west by France. Troops, for the most part Hanoverian and 



THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 333 

British, were in charge of the Hanoverian frontier; the rest 
Frederick had to look after for himself. 

The year brought violent alternations of fortune. Frederick, 
swiftest and most sudden of generals, dashed from Saxony 
upon Prague and won a great victory; but not 
long afterwards, excessive confidence led him to 
disaster at Kolin, and he had to beat a retreat from Bohemia 
with shattered forces. The Duke of Cumberland, 
in command of the army in Hanover, was driven 
by a French army northwards to Klosterseven, where he was 
compelled to capitulate under a convention which the indignant 
British government refused to ratify. But Frederick recovered 
himself, and at Rosbach inflicted a great defeat on 
a second French army which was advancing on 
Saxony. Thence he dashed to the opposite side of the war 
area, and shattered at Leuthen an Austrian army engaged in 
subjugating Silesia. 

The defeat at Rosbach prevented the French from taking 
advantage of their success in Hanover, where the British and 
Hanoverian troops were placed under the command Ferdinand of 
of the skilful Ferdinand of Brunswick, and thence- Brunswick, 
forth proved themselves fully able to cope with all the forces 
that were sent against them. But over the whole of the rest of 
the field, though Frederick might win victories, he could only 
save himself from destruction by the rapidity of his movements, 
When he had smitten one army, no long time ever elapsed 
before he had to dash away with the same troops to meet 
another army on another quarter. Thus in the next year 1758, 
while Ferdinand drove the French over the Rhine, Frederick had 
to drive back the advancing Russians at Zorndorf, Frederick's 
and then to clear Austrian armies out of both struggle. 
Silesia and Saxony. In the year following he could not prevent 
the Austrians from capturing the Saxon capital, Dresden, and 
was severely defeated by the Russians at Kunersdorf ; although 
there was compensation in a great victory won by Ferdinand 
over the French at Minden. 

For one, however, of his opponents this year was extremely 
disastrous. The British general Wolfe succeeded in capturing 



334 THE BOURBON AGE 

Quebec, which was the key to the French dominions in America ; 
and the French fleet was annihilated by the English admirals 
French Boscawen and Hawke off Lagos on the Portuguese 

Disasters. coast and at Quiberon Bay on the coast of Brittany. 
In the first month of the next year France suffered the decisive 
defeat of Wandewash in India. Nevertheless, though France was 
so far paralysed, it was as much as Frederick could do to save him- 
self from complete destruction during 1760, his operations ending 
with the battle of Torgau, which left him still in occupation of 
the greater part of Silesia and Saxony. 

All the combatants were becoming exhausted except Great 
Britain, whose fleets were completely irresistible. France 
The War succeeded in dragging a new King of Spain, 

wears out. Charles 111., into the war, with no other result 
than to provide more prey for the British. But Pitt's supremacy 
in England was over ; and the ministry, appalled by the huge 
war expenditure, desired nothing so much as to make peace 
even at the price of deserting its Prussian ally. Relief 
came to Frederick when his enemy the Tsarina died, and his 
enthusiastic admirer Peter ascended the Russian throne. Six 
months later Peter was deposed by his wife Catharine, who 
assumed the government and ruled with vigour, but refused to 
take any further part in the Seven Years' War. Prussia and 
Austria were left both of them without an effective ally : 
and Frederick, exhausted as he was, could still hold his own 
The Peace, against a single opponent. The war was brought 
17 63. finally to an end at the beginning of 1763 by 

the treaties of Paris and Hubertsburg. 

The total results of the war were that France was shut out 
of America and India ; and except for a few islands, Great 
Britain, Spain, Holland and Portugal were the only colonial 
powers. There were no territorial changes in Europe, but 
Frederick had definitely raised Prussia to a position of 
equality among the powers with France and Austria. But 
Frederick was left bitterly hostile to England on account of 
her desertion of him at the close of the war ; while France was 
thirsting for an opportunity to humiliate the island power 
which had humbled her, and to win back what she had lost. 



THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 335 

For a considerable interval Europe had rest from wars on any 
large scale. But during the next twenty years Great Britain 
became involved in a quarrel which brought about 6 American 
an event of first -rate importance in the world's Independ- 
history, the birth of the independent nation ence - 
called the United States of America. The British colonies 
had not been treated like those of Spain, as The 
estates of the Crown. They had been left for the Colonial 
most part to manage their own affairs, though s y stem - 
with more interference from their governors, whom they did 
not choose for themselves, than the Crown was able to exercise 
in England. But they had to submit to trade regulations 
imposed by the English and later by the British parliament, 
which benefited the Mother Country at the expense of the 
colonies. These they had endured, not without protest 
and occasionally even active resistance ; partly because the 
authorities winked at evasions, and partly because of the 
protection afforded to them against their French rivals by 
British forces. This protection they could not afford to dis- 
pense with so long as the French in Canada could appeal to 
France for support against them. 

But now there was nothing to fear from the French nation, 
and the French colonists in Canada had become British 
subjects by the treaty of Paris. Also the British The 
government, anxious to retrench and to make up Quarrel, 
for the great expenditure on the war, demanded 1765, 
a very strict enforcement of the irritating trade regulations. 
This might have been endured, since the imposition of 
customs for the regulation of trade in the interests of British 
commerce had always been recognised as something quite 
different from taxation of which the object was to raise revenue. 
But when the British government proceeded to impose fresh 
taxes of a trivial but irritating character, with the avowed 
object not of regulating trade but of raising revenue, the 
colonists caught at the opportunity of protesting that the funda- 
mental principle of the British Constitution was set at nought. 
For the Declaration of Right, the instrument under which the 
succession to the English Crown had been changed in 1688, 



336 THE BOURBON AGE 

laid it down as an essential principle of liberty that no tax 
may be imposed on the people without the formal assent 
of their representatives. Yet here was the British parliament 
imposing taxes on the colonists, who had no representatives 
to give or refuse assent. The colonists professed their 
willingness to pay what they themselves considered a -fair 
share of the expenses of a war entered upon largely on their 
behalf. The alternative of giving them representation on the 
British parliament was in those days obviously impracticable 
though it was gravely put forward. But the British governments, 
with one short-lived exception, would not trust the colonists 
to tax themselves, and insisted on the technical right left 
them by the colonial charters to legislate for and to tax the 
American colonies at their own discretion. The colonies 

War, 1775. resisted and took up arms; first of all only in 
defence of what they regarded as their rights, and then — when 
their claims continued to be disregarded — in order to win com- 
plete independence. 

From the time of the fall of William .Pitt, the British admin- 
istration neglected the organisation of the navy, which had 
French attained to such supreme efficiency under him. 

Intervention. jr rancej n the other hand, had been steadily 
endeavouring to raise the standard of her own navy. As 
soon as it appeared that the American colonists had a chance 
of making head successfully against the Mother Country, 
France took up arms in their support, presently drawing Spain 
after her. Great Britain found herself fighting for life. Even 
the sovereignty of the seas seemed about to be torn from her, 
until the French fleet in the West Indies was decisively shattered 
by Rodney, and the British maritime supremacy was restored. 
But by this time all hope of bringing the colonies under 
subjection had disappeared, and the war was closed by a 
The United peace which recognised the Independence of the 
States, 1783. United States. The new nation chose for its 
first president George Washington, the man to whose in- 
tegrity, resolution, patience and skill she had chiefly owed 
her success in the contest. 

The struggle had hardly touched Canada, where the French 



THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 337 

population, accustomed to being ruled, not to ruling themselves, 

had no sympathy with the aspirations of the other colonies 

with their English traditions. There the British 

. ... Canada, 

government had deliberately aimed at conciliating 

its French subjects and respecting their traditions and prejudices. 

Canada became a refuge for many of the families of the 

south, who had remained loyal to the British Crown in the 

face of bitter hostility, and preferred remaining under the 

British Crown to becoming citizens of the new American 

Republic. 

In India the same period saw the British rule in Bengal, 

and the British ascendency among the native powers thoroughly 

established. The Mogul, still nominally the 

i • r 1 • ii 7 - India. 

legal sovereign and source of authority all over 

India, recognised the East India Company as being officially 
the government in Bengal. The British Governor, warren 
Warren Hastings, in spite of extraordinary diffi- Hastings, 
culties created by the blunders of subordinates and the 
unscrupulous opposition of colleagues, as well as the hostile 
ambitions of native potentates and rivals, successfully main- 
tained and strengthened the British position; though some- 
times adopting methods which could only be excused on the 
ground that without them the British would have been driven 
out of India. Immediately after the close of the American 
War of Independence, the British government, headed by the 
younger William Pitt, established that system of a joint control 
of the Indian dominion by the East India Com- The 

pany and by ministers of the Crown which lasted Position in 

India 1784 
until 1858. But it must be very clearly grasped ' 

that as yet the actual British territory consisted of little more 

than the great province of Bengal on the Lower Ganges, and 

the two small districts round Madras and Bombay; although 

the considerable province of Arcot, in which Madras was 

situated, was practically under their control. Over the great 

native state into which nine-tenths of India was divided, they 

exercised only the influence attaching to what every one felt 

to be the strongest military power. The British and the native 

princes alike still professed to acknowledge the supreme 



338 THE BOURBON AGE 

sovereignty vested in the Mogul, the powerless ruler who resided 
at Delhi. 

A new nation was created in America, but an old nation was 
on the verge of disappearing from Europe. We have seen 
Poland several times brought into the complications 
of Western Europe; not intervening as an active 
power on its own initiative, but somehow providing cause of dis- 
pute for others. Poland's own interests lay eastward, where she 
held territories once claimed as Russian, or coveted by the Turk ; 
and on the Baltic, where the Polish provinces intervened between 
Brandenburg and Prussia proper. This division of the Prussian 
king's territories was a grievous source of weakness to him, and 
he greatly coveted this province of West Prussia as it was called 
just as he had coveted Silesia. But Frederick was not prepared 
to expose himself to a general attack by any personal act of 
aggression. 

Poland itself was a kingdom in which the king had very little 
power, and each of the nobles was in effect under no control. 
Under its constitution Poland could hardly take united action 
unless the nobles were unanimous, and practically they were 
never unanimous. It was in no one's interest except that of the 
Poles that Poland should be strong, and the Poles themselves, 
or the nobles, preferred personal independence to national 
strength. 

Most of the powers took a certain interest in the succession 
to the Polish Crown. It was evident that there would soon be 
First an election when Augustus of Saxony should die. 

Partition. Prussia and Russia were both anxious to stop the 
continuity of the Saxon line, which was favoured by both France 
and Austria. Prussia was anxious to detach Austria from the 
French Alliance, so was Catharine of Russia. The emperor 
Francis died, and his son Joseph was elected emperor while 
Maria Theresa still remained queen of the combined Austrian 
kingdoms. Joseph was a great admirer of his mother's old 
enemy Frederick. So it became comparatively easy for 
Frederick to propound a scheme under which he was to get 
West Prussia, thus making his Baltic territories continuous; 
Austria was to have Poland's southern border province, and 



THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 339 

Russia was to have the east province. The kingdom of Poland, 

thus reduced, would be practically subservient to Russia. The 

scheme was duly carried out in 1772, when Great g econ( j and 

Britain was busy with her American quarrel, and Third 

France could not afford to intervene single-handed. Partitions - 

Twenty-one years later the same three powers again parcelled 

out what was left of Poland among themselves. 

France also during these years acquired the Island of Corsica, 

which had long been subject to the Italian republic of Genoa. 

The Corsicans were in constant revolt, and the 

Corsica, 
patriots offered the country to Great Britain. Great 

Britain declined the offer, and France took over Corsica by an 
arrangement with the Genoese. Thus it was the merest accident 
that Napoleon Buonaparte happened to be born a French instead 
of a British subject. 

Throughout this period men's minds were actively engaged on 
political speculation ; on theorising about ideal forms of govern- 
ment, the rights of man, the duties of rulers to 9 The 
their subjects and of subjects to their rulers. Many Approach of 
of them held up to admiration the British govern- Revoluti <> n - 
ment. which appeared to combine the advantages of monarchical 
government, government by an aristocracy composed of the most 
competent members of the community, and government by the 
will of the people. On the other hand there were the theorists, 
who placed their political faith in benevolent despotism • govern- 
ment by the will of a single wise ruler directed to the common 
welfare of his subjects. The popular philosophy, however, 
claimed that all government had its source and its justification 
only in the will of the people ; without offering any clear answer 
to the question how that will was to be ascertained, or to the 
kindred question, whether the will of a simple numerical majority 
was the same thing as the will of the people. As a matter of 
fact every important government in Europe was more or less 

despotic, and every king was trying to make himself _ 

, , , ■ . , , r Despotisms 

an absolute despot ; in some cases, such as that of an a the 

Frederick the Great, with the approval of the mass Rights of 

of their subjects ; while others, such as the 

Emperor Joseph, had the very best intentions, but found their 



340 THE BOURBON AGE 

subjects vigorously opposed to them. In short there was a kind of 
intellectual ferment such as was in progress in the early years of 
the sixteenth century ; but at that time it had tended to centre 
on religion, whereas now it was centred on the principles of 
government. 

The American revolt excited much enthusiasm among the 
theoretical advocates of the Rights of Man, and the exceedingly 
homely envoys from America were received with enthusiasm in 
the glittering salons cf Paris ; but in France itself the Rights of 
Man were to receive a new and terrible interpretation. 

The French king, Louis xvi., like the Austrian emperor 
Joseph, was a person with excellent intentions. Joseph was also 
state of a man full of great ideas, which he strove ener- 

France. getically to carry out in the face of an opposition 

which was too powerful for him. Louis had no ideas, and 
shifted from one incompetent adviser to another with a vague 
hope that some good might result. But the government of the 
country had for long been conducted for the benefit of one section 
of the community at the expense of the rest. The nobles were 
practically free from taxation, of which the burden fell on the 
middle classes., and with crushing severity on the peasantry. 
There was an appalling waste in the expenditure ; but even with 
the most rigid economy, a readjustment of burdens, taxing the 
rich as well as the poor, was absolutely necessary to relieve 
the poor from the intolerable strain. The whole system was 
thoroughly rotten, and the privileged classes were strong enough 
to prevent any reforms which touched their own immunities. At 
length the clamour for some reconstruction became so formidable 
that a proposal was adopted for summoning the States General or 
assembly of the three estates of the realm — the Nobility, the 
Clergy, and the Commons — which had never been called together 
during the last hundred and seventy years. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



Book vil, 1660 to 1789 

GUIDING DATES 



Louis xiv. assumes control 1661 
Independence of Portugal . 1665 
Louis attacks Holland 
William in. of Orange, Stadt- 

holder .... 
Treaty of Nimeguen . 
Accession of Peter the Great 
Turks besiege Vienna : 

Sobieski .... 
Revocation of Edict of 

Nantes .... 
Louis attacks the Palatinate 1688 
William III. of Orange, King 

of England 
Battle of La Hogue . 
Treaty of Ryswick . 
Accession of Charles xn. 

(Sweden) 
Augustus of Saxony, King 

of Poland 
Wars of Charles xn. begin 



1672 

1672 
1678 
1682 

1683 

1685 



1689 
1692 



1697 



king- 



Aurangzib . 
Prussia becomes a 

dom 
The Grand Alliance 
War of Spanish succession 

begins 
Battle of Blenheim 
Englandand Scotlandunited 

as Great Britain 
Pultawa : and Malplaquet . 



1700 
1658-1707 



1701 



1702 
1704 

1707 
1709 



Fall of Marlborough . .1711 

Treaty of Utrecht . . 1713 

Hanoverian succession in 

Britain . . . .1714 

Death of Louis xiv. . .1715 

Battle of Belgrade . . 1717 

Turkish aggression ends at 

Treaty of Passarowitz . 17 18 

Fall of Alberoni . . .1719 
Pragmatic Sanction issued . 1720 

Walpole's ascendency . 1721-42 

Fleury's ascendency . 1726-43 
Bourbon Family Com-' 

pact .... 
War of Polish Succes- 



1733-35 



sion . 
War between Great Britain 

and Spain 
Frederick II. King of 

Prussia . 
War of Austrian succes 

sion begins . 
French and British at war 

in India . 
Francis 1. emperor 
End of Jacobitism 
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle . 
Seven Years' War begins . 
Clive's conquest of Bengal"] 
Frederick 11. wins Rosbach J- 

and Leuthen . . J 

341 



739 



r 1740 



1744 
1745 
1746 
1748 
1756 

1757 



342 



THE BOURBON AGE 



Qui- 



British victories of 
beron and Quebec . 

French crushed in India 

Peace of Paris and Huberts- 
burg .... 

First Partition of Poland . 

Accession of Louis XVI. 



1759 
1760 

1763 
1772 
1774 



American War of Independ- 
ence begins . . .1775 
Peace of Versailles . . 1783 
Pitt's India Act . . ^1784 
Britain annexes Australia"! 
The States General sum- J- 1788 
rrioned . . J 



LEADING NAMES 

Louis XIV.— Charles II. of England— William III. of Orange- 
Colbert— Louvois — Turenne— John Sobieski— Prince Eugene— Marl- 
borough— Peter the Great — Charles XI I . — Regent Orleans— Walpole— 
Fleury — Alberoni — Frederick William I. — Frederick the Great- 
Charles VI. — Maria Theresa — Emperor Francis I.— Tsarina Elizabeth 
—Tsarina Catharine— William Pitt, Earl of Chatham— Robert Clive 
— George Washington— Warren Hastings— Emperor Joseph II.— 
George III.— William Pitt the Younger. 

NOTES 

THE SPANISH AND AUSTRIAN SUCCESSIONS, 1700 and 1740. 

GENEALOGICAL TABLE, SHOWING CLAIMANTS TO PORTIONS OF THE 1 
SPANISH DOMINION, 1699-1701, AND OF THE AUSTRIAN DOMINION, 1740 



FRANCE. 

Henry IV. 

Louis XIII. 



SPAIN. 
Philip III, 

! 



I 
Philip IV. 



I" I I I 

Louis XIV. Philip, D. of Maria Charles II. 

m. Infanta Orleans. Theresa, m. 

Maria | , Louis XIV. 

Theresa. ' Regent ' 

I Orleans. 



I 

Maria, m. 

Ferdinand III. 

I 

I 



AUSTRIA. 

Ferdinand II. 



Ferdinand IIIJ 
m. Infanta Maria.! 



Margaret, m. 
Leopold I. 



f Leopold I. 
I 



I 
Dauphin. 

I 



I 
1. 

Infanta 

Margaret. 

I 



Eleanor of 
Neuberg. 



I 
Duke of Burgundy. 

I 
Louis XV. 



t Philip V. 



I 

Maria, m. 
•f Elector of Bavaria. 

I 
+ Electoral Prince. 



Joseph I. 

I 
Maria Amelia 
m. Elector of 

Bavaria, 
^Charles VII. 



I 
Archduke 1 
- Charles Vl! 

i , 

r Maria Theres;j 
m. Francis of j 



Lorraine, 
Francis I. J 

Emperors printed in capitals. Kings of France printed in italics. Kings of Spain printed in dark typd 



t Claimants in war of Spanish Succession. 



Claimants in war of Austrian Succession. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 343 

Characteristics of the Age. The age recorded in Book VI. might 
be described as the era of zeal, and especially of religious zeal. The 
strife of Protestantism and Romanism was to a large extent one of 
passionate beliefs, in which each side honestly held that it was 
fighting for God against the Devil. With a slight difference the 
contest between Royalists and Puritans in England and Scotland 
was also a conflict of ideals. But the next age dealt with in the 
book just concluded was a critical age, which discouraged zeal for 
the most part, and was wanting in ideals. It subordinated emotion 
and sentiment to reason and practical convenience. Its typical 
intellectual product was the Frenchman Voltaire. And just as the 
age was one of reaction against the emotional age which preceded 
it, so it led up to the counter-reaction, which was finding expression 
before the era closed in the French Swiss Rousseau, and took material 
shape in the French Revolution. 

War and Religion. In our last period the root-cause of most of the 
wars which occurred is to be found in the antagonism of religions. 
But in the wars of Louis xiv. we find Protestant and Catholic 
powers ranged side by side in resistance to the aggression of Louis 
XIV., whose motive presents itself as that of aggrandising himself 
and his dynasty. Religion, as a motive, occupies only a very minor 
place, but it is still revealed as present chiefly in the relations 
between France, England, and Holland. The security of a Protes- 
tant succession at all costs drove England to make common cause 
with Holland, both when William III. was king and in the war of 
the Spanish succession. Yet the Treaty of Utrecht shows that 
colonial rivalry is already taking the first place as the subject of con- 
tention between Britain and France ; and in the war of the Austrian 
succession, and the Seven Years' War, as well as in the war of 
American Independence, colonial questions entirely overshadow all 
others, so far as concerns Britain. 

North American Races. The 'Red Indians' of North America 
never reached a stage of civilisation in which they could be said to 
have formed states ; they had no towns. They seem to have been 
developing agricultural settlements when English colonisation 
began, but resumed migratory habits. Their tribes formed leagues or 
federations, and made fierce onslaughts on the European settlers 
from time to time ; a northern group known as the ' Five Nations ' 
were particularly active and dangerous. Wars with them, however, 
were always in the nature of raids and counter-raids ; they never 
adapted themselves to civilised life, but remained nomads and 
hunters. 



BOOK VIII 
THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 



CHAPTER XXV 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
AND THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 

The French States-General met in May 1789. In April 1792 
France declared war against Austria ; and from that time until 
the midsummer of 181 5 she was always at war with 1# The Era 
one power and often with many, except for four- of Convulsion, 
teen months during 1802-3, and for twelve months in 18 14-15. 
Throughout this period of twenty-six years, French affairs over- 
shadow those of the rest of Europe ; they are the pivot on which 
nearly all European questions turn. We shall therefore open 
this chapter with some preliminary explanations, chiefly as to 
extraneous matters, in order to avoid interrupting the course of 
the narrative. 

In Prussia Frederick the Great had already been succeeded 
by his nephew Frederick William 11., a prince lacking both in 
energy and in ability, who reigned till 1797. In The European 
Russia, Catharine 11. was still Tsarina, her reign Powers, 
lasting till the end of 1795. Her interests were concerned 
mainly with Turkey and Poland, and her proceedings necessarily 
affected both Prussia and Austria and the mutual relations of 
those powers. Joseph 11. was still emperor. Early in 1790 he 
was succeeded by his very able brother Leopold 11. : but 
Leopold reigned for barely two years, and his successor 
Francis 11. was not of the calibre to make an efficient leader 
for Europe. He reigned throughout the period. In England 
George 111. was king. The British Empire had been torn in 
two, and one portion of it had become the American nation in 

1783; but from that time till the end of the century, and in 

347 



348 THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 

effect for longer, the man who controlled the destinies of Great 
Britain was the second William Pitt. Great Britain was the 
last of the great states to be drawn into the struggle with 
France; but from the beginning of 1793 she was the only one 
which to the very end was persistently dominated by the 
determination to resist French aggression at all costs. Almost 
down to that date there was a strong inclination in England to 
regard the French Revolution with sympathy ; after it the con- 
viction prevailed that France was once again, as in the days of 
Louis xiv., seeking to become not the liberator but the dictator 
of Europe. Moreover, the Reign of Terror in France produced 
in England as elsewhere a strong reaction against all previous 
tendencies to increase the political power of the populace. 

The States General met, having before it the immense task of 
reorganising French finances, dealing with the oppressive 
2 Fall of the privileges of the nobles, the clergy, and the court, 
French and reconstructing the Constitution on lines re- 

Monarchy, cognising the popular right to a share in political 
power. The three estates were the noblesse, the clergy, and the 
commons. A battle at once began for the predominance of the 
third estate, which turned on the principle that the three estates 
should vote as one body, since otherwise the two privileged 
The States bodies would outvote the third unprivileged body. 
General, 1789. The third estate, led by Mirabeau, himself a scion 
of the nobility, carried the day. But it seemed that the court 
and the privileged orders meant to override what had now been 
converted into the 'National Assembly.' The people of Paris 
enrolled themselves in the force which became the National 
Guard ; the soldiers sided with the people ; amid general 
acclamation, the Bastille, the fortress prison representative of 
arbitrary rule, was stormed and overthrown. The populace of 
Paris were masters of the situation. 

The court party were cowed ; many of them took flight from 
the country. Most of the sincere reformers had not yet realised 
The End of how weak were the forces left to control the 
Feudalism. passions of the mob if they were once fairly 
roused, though the risings of the peasantry against the 
' seigneurs,' over half France, might have given warning. The 



FRENCH REVOLUTION AND FRENCH REPUBLIC 349 

National Assembly attacked what seemed to be the root-cause 
of the general grievances; and within a month of the fall of the 
Bastille, it had practically wiped out all the obnoxious privileges 
of noblesse and clergy. But the whole fabric of the social 
order in France was based on the existence of these privileges ; 
it was necessary to replace them by some system on which a 
new social order could rest. In England, something like 
popular government had gradually grown up, but at every 
stage the reformers had always claimed and felt that they were 
not introducing innovations but merely safeguarding the funda- 
mental principles of the Constitution. In France, it was the 
fundamental principles that were shattered, and new funda- 
mental principles had to be found and substituted for them. 
Intent on its high purpose, the Assembly set about The First 
constructing a new constitution, for which reason Constitution, 
it was now entitled the 'Constituent' Assembly. 1790, 
A constitution was arrived at which was entirely incapable of 
working. A strong central government was a sheer necessity in 
a state where the old order was broken up, as Oliver Cromwell 
had found in England ; but anything creating a strong central 
government in France was looked on as a return to despotism. 
The one man who might conceivably have saved France, 
Mirabeau, died. The king made the disastrous blunder of 
attempting to fly from the country — and failing ; while the 
emigres, those of the court party who had fled, were clamouring 
to persuade foreign powers to intervene and restore the French 
monarchy. 

A reconciliation was effected however. The king remained 
king, accepting the new constitution, and the governing body 
was a new ' Legislative ' Assembly of which no one 
who had sat in the National Assembly was allowed to Legislative 
be a member. The immense majority of them were Assembly, 
practically republicans, divided into two parties 
known as the Girondins and the Jacobins or the ' Mountain. 
The real leaders of the latter, Danton, Robespierre, and Marat 
were actually not members of the Assembly at all. 

The Emperor Leopold and the King of Prussia had adopted 
an attitude which in France was regarded as insolently aggressive ; 



35o THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 

so much so that the Assembly compelled the king to declare 
war upon Austria at the very moment when Leopold died. 
France France at the same time became possessed with 

declares War, the theory of Louis xiv., that she had a right to her 
1792, ' Natural ' boundaries — those which would give her 

a geographically complete territory, girdled on two sides by the 
sea, on the south by the sea and the Pyrenees, and on the east 
by the Alps and the River Rhine. This involved the appropria- 
tion of some German territory, and of the Austrian Netherlands 
or Belgium, which in character and language were French rather 
than Austrian. Thus France had two distinct motives for war, 
one aggressive, the other patriotically defiant of foreign inter- 
ference in French affairs. To this was presently added a third, 
that of liberating the 'peoples' of Europe from ' slavery' to 
monarchs, for which subjection to the ' liberty '-loving French 
Republic was to be substituted. 

Patriots crowded to the armies which hastened to the 
frontiers. Louis really hoped for the restoration of his own 
September dignities by the foreign intervention which he was 
Massacres. defying. The Jacobins captured the Paris govern- 
ment or 'Commune' and the persons of the whole royal family, 
while the Legislative Assembly showed that it had no real 
control. The prisons were already crowded with 'suspects,' 
persons who were supposed to be connected with the emigres 
and plotters for an aristocratic restoration : an immense number 
more were suddenly seized and massacred (September 1792), 
largely owing to panic over the advance of the Prussian and 
Austrian forces on the frontier, an advance which was checked 
almost at the same moment. Also at the same moment the 
Legislative Assembly was dissolved and replaced by a new 
National Convention, dominated by extremists. 

In the course of the next four months the revolution was 
completed. The first act of the Convention was to declare 
the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a 
The Head of re P u blic In all directions the armies of the 
a King, republic were successful, in Savoy, on the Rhine, 

and in Belgium, The Convention proclaimed that 
all the territories occupied by French troops were liberated from 



FRENCH REVOLUTION AND FRENCH REPUBLIC 351 

their masters and under French protection. Finally it brought 
the unfortunate Louis xvi. to trial, and condemned him to 
death. His head fell under the guillotine, and France was 
immediately at war with all the kings of Europe. 

Now Prussia and Austria were both quite as much taken up 
with the last partition of Poland which Catharine of Russia had 
just arranged as with the French war It was true 3. The 
that the French generals, Dumouriez and others, Terror, 
had been remarkably successful; but it was not to be imagined 
that a country in the throes of a revolution, emptied of the 
families which had led it for generations, with no France 
one of experience to guide it, and in a state of against the 
financial chaos, could possibly offer a prolonged Monarcnies - 
resistance to the arms of united Europe ; so united Europe only 
gave half its attention to France. England took the seas, but 
her army had not won distinction in America, and her troops 
were now placed under the command of the king's second son 
the Duke of York, who was an entirely inefficient general. The 
republic, on the other hand, possessed in Carnot a man endowed 
with a genius for military organisation and an infallible skill in 
the selection of officers, while he was entirely unhampered by 
respect for tradition in the one case and for rank or family in 
the other. Ability was the one condition without which no one 
could hope to obtain a command, success the one condition of 
retaining it. Failure was as likely as not to lead the way to the 
guillotine — failure, or the suspicion of aristocratic proclivities. 
And the men were consumed with a fervour of patriotism which 
had the same effect on their courage as the religious fanaticism of 
the Moslem. The French waged war as if they had been a united 
people under a stable government, partly at least because on the 
question of the war they really were united; and Carnot's military 
administration was not interfered with. 

In the months immediately following the death of King 
Louis, nothing seemed so likely as that the different groups 
would devour each other. In the rivalry between The 
the Girondins, who had now become the party of Mountain, 
moderation, and the Jacobins, the latter were victorious, drove 
the Girondins out of office, and sent many of them to the 



352 THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 

guillotine. The peasants of La Vendee revolted, in the cause 
of Church and king. Marat, the most bloodthirsty of the 
' Mountain,' was assassinated by Charlotte Corday. The 
Royalists at Toulon held the citadel and port under the pro- 
tection of the guns of a British fleet. But the Jacobins held 
the government at Paris ; the administration was entirely con- 
trolled by a small body called the Committee of Public Safety, 
on which were conferred powers more absolute than those of 
any dictator. Their commissioners in every district and in 
every camp ruled despotically ; men and women were flung into 
prison in thousands as 'suspects,' and murdered in hundreds by 
their tribunals as aristocrats. At one stage Paris provided some 
fifty daily victims to the guillotine for several weeks. Appalling 
profanities and obscenities were perpetrated in the name of the 
'Goddess of Reason' till even Paris sickened; and Robespierre 
turned on the most disgusting of his allies, only to follow up 
their destruction by that of Danton who had become the chief 
of the moderate party now called the Indulgents. But the 
terror had reached a pitch at which no man felt his head secure. 
Fall of Indulgents and Terrorists united to overthrow 

Robespierre, Robespierre, who followed his own victims to the 
1794 - guillotine, just eighteen months after Louis had 

been slain. The country was sated with the horrors on which 
it had supped so long, and the Thermidorean reaction (so 
called from the name of the month 'Thermidor' in which it 
took place, the republic having reconstructed the calendar) 
brought in an administration which put an end to the Reign of 
Terror. 

Meanwhile the allies had been conducting the war without 
energy; the Rhine provinces and Belgium were practically in 
Military the hands of the French, who owed the recovery 

Successes. f Toulon also to the skill of the young artillery 
officer Napoleon Buonaparte. Their troops crossed the 
Pyrenees and invaded Spain. The one notable success of 
the allies was in a sea-fight off Ushant, won on June ist (1794) 
by Lord Howe. In the winter the French overran Holland, 
which shortly transformed itself into the Batavian Republic ; 
the Stadtholder William of Orange fled to England, to which 



FRENCH REVOLUTION AND FRENCH REPUBLIC 353 

power he transferred the Dutch Colony at the Cape of Good 
Hope. In 1795 tne three eastern powers made a further 
partition of Poland, and both Prussia and Spain retired from 
the French war. 

The French government which assumed control in July 1794 
and overthrew Robespierre set about the usual business of 
inventing a new constitution. The administra- The 
tion was to be in the hands of a Directory of Directory, 
five ; two Assemblies were to have charge of 1795 "- 
legislation. Two-thirds of the members of the first Assemblies 
were to be taken from among the members of the National 
Convention. When the time arrived for the elections, Paris 
rose in insurrection; the head of the government, Barras, 
entrusted the task of dealing with the mob to Buonaparte, 
though he was only six-and-twenty. Buonaparte brought 
artillery to bear, and the insurrection was suppressed. Thus the 
Directory was established. 

Henceforth Buonaparte or Bonaparte — as he presently spelt 
his name — is the central figure ; but until 1799 he is in theory 
merely one of the generals of the Republic. In 
fact, he had already made up his mind to play the 
part of Julius Caesar. The plan of campaign which he sub- 
mitted to Carnot procured him the command of the armies of 
the Republic in Italy, which was selected as one area of the 
war with Austria. Two other armies were to advance on 
Vienna through Germany. 

In Italy, Austria had for her ally the King of Sardinia and 

his subjects in Piedmont. Bonaparte joined the French forces 

in April and opened one of the most brilliant and ^ 

E . , , . . . . The 

startling campaigns on record ; making it his great Italian 

principle to keep the enemy split up so that he Campaign, 

could destroy them in detachments. This he 

accomplished by the rapidity and audacity of his movements. 

Thus he shattered their centre at Montenotte. The Austrian 

wing retired on the Po, the Piedmontese on Turin, but the 

King of Sardinia saw that Piedmont was thus practically lost 

and promptly made his own peace. Bonaparte turned on the 

Austrians, routed them at the Bridge of Lodi, and took posses 

z 



354 THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 

sion of Milan. Naples was also supposed to be an ally of 
Austria, but at once followed the example of Sardinia. Bona- 
parte conducted his operations with very little regard for the 
instructions he received from Paris, and while the Austrians 
were shut up in Mantua he asserted the French supremacy over 
North Italy, levying contributions and taking toll of the art- 
treasures of every city, and making his own arrangements. 
Austrian reinforcements poured into Italy from the Tyrol, but 
again Bonaparte shattered them while they were in separate 
divisions. More reinforcements came at the end of the year ; 
they met with the same fate at the battles of Areola and 
Rivoli. Mantua was forced to surrender, the 
pope had to accede to the treaty of Tolentino, by 
which he ceded some of the papal states already occupied by 
French troops, and the ' Cispadane Republic ' was established in 
North Italy. Meanwhile the other campaign in Germany had 
been foiled ; before it was possible for another general to 
Treaty of advance and deprive him of his laurels, Bonaparte 
Campo was on his way to Austria ; and at Leoben, Austrian 

Formio. commissioners signed a treaty which was confirmed 

with some alterations later in the year at Campo Formio. 
Austria ceded Belgium and Lombardy, but received a slice of 
Venetian territory, for which Bonaparte found a sufficient 
excuse in an emeute which had taken place in Venice, though 
that power was nominally neutral. 

In the meantime, the British command of the sea had been 
threatened by Spain and Holland joining France ; but the 
Spanish fleet was shattered by Admiral Jervis off Cape St. 
Vincent in February, and the Dutch by Admiral Duncan 
at Camperdown in October. In Paris, political plots and 
counterplots drove Carnot into exile and removed two of the 
generals who might have been Bonaparte's rivals, while, un- 
happily for France, the ablest of them all and infinitely the 
noblest, Hoche, also died. When Bonaparte returned to 
Paris after Campo Formio, it was obvious that he was com- 
Bonaparte's pletely master of the situation. But the hour for 
Scheme. which he was waiting had not yet arrived. He 

had conceived the idea of capturing Egypt and Syria, and with 



FRENCH REVOLUTION AND FRENCH REPUBLIC 355 

Asia as his base conquering both Europe and India. He had 
already learnt to regard Great Britain as the one serious obstacle 
to his tremendous ambitions, which were hidden from the 
Directory ; they were well enough pleased by any plan which 
would keep their terrible general as far as possible from 
France. 

Great preparations were made, ostensibly for an invasion of 
England ; but when the French fleet snatched an opportunity 
for sailing out of Toulon with Bonaparte on board, 
while the British squadron under Nelson's com- 
mand was temporarily disabled by weather, its objective was 
not England but Egypt. Nelson was promptly Battle of 
in hot pursuit, but passed the French in a fog and toe Nile, 
found no one at Alexandria. When the game of hide-and-seek 
was ended, and he caught and annihilated the French fleet at 
the battle of the Nile, or Aboukir Bay (Aug. 1st), Bonaparte 
and his army had already landed and were engaged in making 
themselves masters of Egypt. But Nelson's victory turned 
the Mediterranean into a British lake ; Bonaparte's communica- 
tions with France were completely cut off. Left entirely 
dependent on his own resources in Egypt, he brought that 
country into subjection ; but when he carried his arms into 
Syria, he was foiled by the stubborn resistance Bonaparte 
of Acre. His great scheme had been ruined by in Syria, 
the destruction of the French fleet. Returning to Egypt, news 
reached him of European events which caused him hastily to 
make sail for France with a few companions, leaving Egypt 
under the control of General Kleber. 

When Bonaparte sailed for Egypt, Great Britain was the 
only nation with which the Republic was actually at war. 
Austria and Prussia were at odds as to the compensation to 
be given to the Rhineland princes whose territories the recent 
treaties handed over to France. The Tsar Paul, who succeeded 
Catharine in Russia at the end of 1796, took offence at 
Bonaparte's seizure of Malta on his way to Egypt, and was 
hostile to all the ideas which the French Revolution represented. 
The Directory roused general alarm in Europe by its high- 
handed treatment of the pope, and by organising a Roman 



356 THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 

Republic, and a new ' Helvetic Republic ' in Switzerland, and 
replacing the monarchy at Naples by a ' Parthenopean ' 
Republic. 

Hence, by the beginning of 1799, a new coalition was formed 

against France, its chief members being Great Britain, Russia, 

and Austria. War was declared, and the French 

1799. 

generals met with a series of reverses, especially 
at the hands of the Russian Suvarov or Suwarrow in the north 
Second of Italy ; the Bourbon monarchy was restored at 

Coalition. Naples under the protection of Nelson's fleet 

The ship which carried Bonaparte evaded hostile squadrons 
and landed him in October. Although in the meantime Austria 
and Russia had quarrelled and Suvarov had thrown up his 
command, the military situation was still critical, and the 
political situation at Paris was still more so. 

The returned general hastened to Paris, acclaimed as the 
conqueror of Egypt. The Directory had lost public confidence 
and was hopelessly out of touch with the Assemblies. The 
Return of constitution did not permit any one so young as 
Bonaparte. Bonaparte — now only thirty — to join the Directory ; 
but he found a useful ally in one of its members, the Abbe Sieves, 
the archbuilder of constitutions. Sieyes had a new constitution 
quite ready, exquisitely symmetrical, with the governmental 
powers so admirably distributed that every one was a check 
on every one else, and there was no real power anywhere at 
all. It only remained necessary to create one official with 
power to override every one else, in place of the figure-head 
provided by the Sieyes constitution. 

This was done. A coup d'etat was carried out, the Assemblies 
being forced to submission by the advance of the soldiery who 
B nauarte were Denm d tne g reat soldier. Napoleon Bonaparte 
First Consul, was proclaimed ' First Consul,' with, for form's 
Nov. 1799. sake, a pair of colleagues, also called consuls, 
whose functions were merely formal. The First Consul was 
nominally appointed only for ten years ; but the appointment 
of all executive officers, including all ministers, was in his 
hands, and also that of the ' Council of State,' a body created 
by the new constitution, who alone had power to introduce 



FRENCH REVOLUTION AND FRENCH REPUBLIC 357 

legislation. Hence the First Consul was in effect a complete 
autocrat, who even held in his own hands the appointment of 
all the local authorities possessed of any powers. The title, 
borrowed from Republican Rome, lasted for a little more than 
four years, when it was exchanged for that of Emperor ; but 
for all practical purposes Napoleon was thenceforth the absolute 
monarch of France. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL AND EMPEROR 

Napoleon at once began to make peace-overtures to Great 
Britain and Austria, but the governments refused to regard them 
l. The as genuine ; so in the year after his coup d'etat 

First Consul (which was confirmed by a plebiscite or popular vote) 
he flung himself into Italy, where Massena was holding out 
stubbornly in Genoa for France. He let Genoa 
fall, for the sake of inflicting a crushing defeat on 
the Austrians at Marengo, a victory which was owed to the for- 
tunate audacity of a subordinate. But though this gave him the 
upper hand in North Italy, Austria was not yet beaten to her 
knees. This, however, was brought about in the winter, when 
Moreau, advancing on Vienna, won the decisive victory of 
Hohenlinden. Austria was compelled to accept the peace of 
Luneville, and Britain was left to fight alone. 

Her naval power was again threatened by what was called the 
Armed Neutrality, a league of the northern naval powers to resist 
the rights at sea which had hitherto always been 
claimed by the strongest navies and protested 
against by the rest. Now, however, there was good reason to 
British think that the Armed Neutrality was only prepara- 

Successes. tor y t0 placing these fleets at the service of France ; 
so, although Britain was at peace with Denmark, she sent a fleet 
to Copenhagen, and by the ' Battle of the Baltic ' enforced 
Danish submission. French prospects were further damaged by 
the assassination of the Tsar Paul, who had come to regard 
Napoleon as the destroyer of Jacobinism. His successor, Alex- 

358 



NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL AND EMPEROR 359 

ander 1., was full of liberal ideas, reversed the policy of Paul, and 
made friends with Britain. A British army was landed in Egypt, 
which defeated the French at Aboukir and com- „ , 0rtn 

F6EIC6, 1802. 

pelled them to capitulate at Alexandria. Hence a 

general peace, which proved after all to be only a brief truce, 

was signed at Amiens in March 1802. 

Although the French government still made pretence of being 
a Republic, Napoleon's absolutism was certainly no less com- 
plete than that of Louis xiv. He set about reconciling hostile 
elements to the new regime, which satisfied the people at large, 
since they were not to be deprived of the material benefits which 
they had gained by the Revolution. So much being Bonaparte's 
secured, they had lost all anxiety for the possession Administra- 
of political power, in the sense of participating in 10n ' 
the government. There was a formal reconciliation with the 
clergy and the Church, though these were still treated as sub- 
ordinate to the state. The exiled Royalists were allowed to 
return to a country where a Bourbon restoration was now a 
manifest impossibility. The glories of the court were revived in 
all their old magnificence. Splendid buildings rose, costly public 
works were undertaken. Napoleon set on foot and carried 
through a great codification of the laws, establishing a uniform 
system in place of the infinite number of local laws and usages 
which had grown up in the days when there was practically no 
central government. The 'Code Napoleon' which was not 
completed till some years afterwards, was introduced in all the 
lands which the emperor brought under his sway, and modified 
the law of those countries permanently. The pretence of a 
Republic was itself brought to an end in 1804, when Napoleon 
was proclaimed no longer First Consul, but Emperor. 

Meanwhile, a diet, under French supervision, was working out 
the arrangements for the reorganisation of the German Empire 
in French and Russian interests, which meant in Foreign 
part the aggrandisement of Prussia as a counter- Policy, 
poise to Austria. Secular princes whose territories were annexed 
to France, as well as others, were compensated by the secularisa- 
tion of the ecclesiastical domains — that is, by their absorption 
into the lay principalities. At the same time the various Re- 



360 THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 

publics set up in Italy, Holland, and Switzerland, were brought 
more directly under French control. This process was alarming, 
at least to the greater states. But Napoleon had no doubt of 
his ability to manage all of them, except the persistently hostile 
Britain, which made no haste to carry out the terms of the 
treaty of Amiens while it saw France practically ignoring them. 

Fifteen months after the treaty, the friction between these two 
powers had reached the point of another open rupture, and war 

was declared. Napoleon gathered at Boulogne vast 

armaments which he hoped to create an oppor- 
tunity for flinging across the Channel, and masses of British 
Renewal of volunteers were drilling to meet the invader when 
War - he came. But Napoleon could not strike while the 

British fleets swept the seas, and the British had no armies fit to 
attack Napoleon's veterans. 

Then Napoleon shocked all Europe by kidnapping a Bourbon 
prince, the Due d'Enghien, on foreign soil, and having him shot 
2. Napoleon I. as an accomplice in a royalist plot which had just 
emperor, been discovered and crushed in Paris ; a plot which 

led directly to the assumption of the title of Emperor 
by Napoleon, since the acknowledgment of his dynasty seemed 
needed to put an end finally to Bourbon conspiracies. 

The Tsar Alexander was already sufficiently ill-pleased with 
the new despotism in France ; his own ideal seems to have been 
that of popular government ruling by grace of a benevolent— and 
legitimate — autocrat who could impose his own will upon the 
people whenever he thought it would be for their own good. Pitt 
returned to office in England, having been driven into tem- 
The Third porary retirement by the king's refusal to grant 
Coalition, Catholic Emancipation, to which the minister had 

pledged himself as a corollary to the incorporation 
of the Irish parliament into that of the ' United Kingdom of 
Great Britain and Ireland' (1800). Pitt and Alexander exerted 
themselves to create a new coalition against Napoleon, which 
took shape in the summer of 1805, being joined by Austria, 
while Prussia stood aloof; the inefficiency of Prussian policy had 
not been affected by the succession of Frederick William in. on 
his father's death, We may here note that the Austrian emperor 



NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL AND EMPEROR 361 

now styled himself 'Hereditary Emperor of Austria,' while 
Napoleon's title as Emperor of the French was acknowledged. 
The accession of Austria to the coalition was brought about when 
the republics of the western half of North Italy were annexed 
to France, and the eastern half suppressed itself as a republic and 
invited Napoleon to become its king. 

Before the coalition declared war, Napoleon designed his great 
blow against Britain. The French and Spanish fleets were to 
effect a junction in the West Indies, enticing the main British 
fleet away. Then they were to return, and in conjunction with 
the fleet blockaded in Brest were to wipe out the Channel fleet, 
and so to secure the invasion of England. The Trafalgar 
Toulon fleet escaped, was pursued across the and uim, 
Atlantic by Nelson, evaded him, returned, was 0ctober - 
checked by a squadron off Finisterre, and withdrew to Cadiz, 
while Nelson was hurrying back. The scheme of invasion was 
completely wrecked. 

By this time, Austria and Russia were progressing with their 
slow preparations, and Austria had pushed an army forward into 
Bavaria. Napoleon lost no moment after the failure of his in- 
vasion scheme had revealed itself. With extraordinary speed, 
the vast force destined for the British shores was hurled from 
the neighbourhood of Boulogne across Europe into Bavaria. 
The Austrian army was isolated and compelled to capitulate at 
Ulm on October 20th. The next day, Nelson caught the com- 
bined French and Spanish fleets off Trafalgar, where he anni- 
hilated them ; at the price of the great sailor's life, Britain there 
won mastery of the seas so decisive that it has never again been 
challenged. The nightmare of invasion which had hung over 
England for two years and a half was finally dissipated. 

But Napoleon never seems to have fully grasped the signifi- 
cance of the British sea-power. Publicly at least he made light 
of Trafalgar, which even in the eyes of the dying Austerlitz, 
Pitt was overshadowed by the events that followed. December. 
Three weeks had hardly passed when the French were at Vienna. 
In another three weeks, the advancing Russians, joined by 
the second Austrian army which had not ventured to interpose 
between Ulm and Vienna, were decisively routed in one of 



362 THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 

Napoleon's most brilliant victories at Austerlitz (Dec. 2nd). In 
the interval, Prussia had begun to think about taking action, but 
had preferred second thoughts. Before the end of the month, 
Russia had withdrawn in disgust, and Austria was submitting to 
have terms dictated to her at Presburg. 

Those terms included the transfer to the ' Kingdom of Italy ' 
of the Italian provinces which still remained to Austria after 
Luneville, and the surrender of various outlying 
territories to the South German princes who had 
sided with Napoleon. The King of England's German Elec- 
A new Map torate of Hanover was presented to Prussia. Most 
of Europe. f the German states outside of Austria and the 
Prussian dominion were soon after associated in the Confedera- 
tion of the Rhine ; but one group on the north-west was made 
into the kingdom of Westphalia for Napoleon's younger brother 
Jerome ; Belgium and Holland were made a kingdom for Louis 
Bonaparte ; while the Bourbons, on a flimsy pretext, were turned 
out of Naples, which was given to Joseph Bonaparte. In August 
the emperor finally dropped his title as Roman Emperor, and 
the Holy Roman Empire ended its thousand years of existence. 
Negotiations between Napoleon and the new British ministry, 
rejected by the latter, opened Prussia's eyes to the fact that she 
was being made a cat's-paw. Too late, she turned 
on Napoleon, who promptly crushed her defiance at 
Jena (October), and made what was practically a triumphant march 
through the country. Frederick William took refuge with the 
Russians, against whom Napoleon was obliged to advance. A 
desperate but indecisive battle at Eylau in February was followed 
by a decisive victory at Friedland in June ; and this was followed 

by a personal meeting between Napoleon and Alex- 
Tilsit, 1807. y , F „.. . , * t F 

ander at Tilsit, when the two emperors came to an 

amicable agreement which meant that they were virtually to share 

the domination of Europe. Prussia lost some more territory, her 

share of Poland being transformed into the Grand Duchy of 

Warsaw, and handed over to Saxony. But Napoleon's grand 

object was to carry out his ' Continental System,' initiated by a 

decree issued from Berlin after Jena, by which the British were 

to be absolutely excluded from every European port ; thus 



NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL AND EMPEROR 363 

British commerce was to be ruined and Britain herself was 
doomed to perish. 

As a matter of fact, no sea-borne commerce being possible 
except in British ships, and all Europe having become largely 
dependent on goods procurable only from overseas, The Con 
the Continental System would have been doomed tinentai 
to failure, even if Russia had not withdrawn from System, 

1807 

it and England had not secured a port of entry for 
herself through the action of Spain and Portugal. The British 
answered the treaty of Tilsit by seizing the Danish fleet after a 
bombardment of Copenhagen, although Britain and Denmark 
were not at war. Napoleon replied by requiring Portugal to 
join the Continental System. French troops marched on 
Portugal, when she protested ; and Napoleon took the oppor- 
tunity to bring about the abdication both of the King isos, 
of Spain and his son, and to bestow the Spanish Portugal and 
Crown on his own brother Joseph, whose kingdom 
of Naples was handed over to Murat, one of Napoleon's marshals. 
The Spanish people rose in arms against the usurpation, and the 
British resolved to support Spain and Portugal with all their 
military force. Thus began the Peninsular War. 

The rising in Spain was a spontaneous popular insurrection, 
without organisation, without an effective head; but for that 
very reason it was not to be suppressed. Spain was 3. ThePenin- 
flooded with French troops, which could hardly sular War. 
help being victorious in the field, but wherever they were not 
present, the bands of insurgents were breaking in upon 
their communications. There was no fleet to stop British 
troops from entering Portugal, when Sir Arthur Wellesley, best 
known by his later title of Duke of Wellington, defeated the 
French commander and forced him to evacuate the country 
altogether. In the winter, the masterly operations of Sir John 
Moore prevented Napoleon from completing the subjugation of 
Southern Spain ; and from that time, the Peninsula was 
left to the French marshals, for each of whom Wellington was 
fully a match, while their jealousies prevented their effective 
co-operation. For five years, the attempt to conquer Spain 
kept a quarter of a million French soldiers locked up in the 



364 THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 

Peninsula. Marshal Victor, Massena, Marmont, tried their 
hands in turn against Wellington, only to be repulsed or to 
suffer complete rout, until the crushing blow was dealt to 
Jourdan at Vittoria in 1813. Throughout the whole period 
the Spanish regulars were of the least possible assistance to the 
British troops, whereas the irregulars carried on persistent 
guerilla warfare infinitely distracting and destructive to the French 
armies. 

But the Spanish defiance did much more than to lock up 
quarter of a million of French soldiers. Hitherto Napoleon had 
The Awaken- waged war against kings ; in Spain he was waging 
ingof war against a people, and the example of Spain 

a lona ism. aw0 ^ e tne S pi r jt f passionate patriotism in the 
hearts of the peoples of Europe. The idea of nationalism had 
hitherto been exceedingly subordinate in European politics. For 
the heterogeneous peoples which made up the Austrian state 
— Netherlanders, Germans, Magyars in Hungary, Czechs in 
Bohemia, Italians in Italy — no common idea of patriotism was 
possible. Territories were transferred from one power to an- 
other, as the outcome of wars or marriages, without any sort of 
consideration for differences of race, language, or customs. 
German princes sent their German subjects to fight shoulder to 
shoulder with the French against German armies. Italy was 
parcelled out among dynasties which might be anything so long 
as they were not Italian. The uprising of Spain kindled the 
sense of common nationality wherever common nationality ex- 
isted in Europe, and bore fruit not only in the uprising of 
Germany against Napoleon, but in the liberation or unification 
of one after another of the nations of Europe during the 
nineteenth century. 

In Prussia, intolerably humiliated after Jena, which it owed to 
the unpatriotic incompetence of the aristocratic class which 
The Re- dominated the government, the foundations of a 

generation new national life were laid by the political reforms 
of Stein and the military reorganisation of Scharn- 
horst, which gave every peasant and every citizen a consciousness 
of his own personal share in Prussia. But the time to strike 
had not yet arrived ; before it came, the gospel of nationalism 



NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL AND EMPEROR 365 

was being spread and welcomed almost throughout Germany, 
not by the government but by the peoples themselves. 

If Napoleon had concentrated his energies upon personally 
crushing Wellington, matters would probably have taken a 
different course. The British could hardly have poured enough 
troops into Portugal to make head against the emperor's armies, 
though the lines of Torres Vedras which baffled Massena might 
well have baffled Massena's master. But Napoleon The 
never realised how difficult the task was which he Wagram 
left to his marshals, or how serious a strain on his Com P ai & n - 
resources the Peninsula was to be. Moreover, in 1809 he was 
engaged in another bout with Austria, which was decided by 
the battle of Wagram. Before the end of the year Austria had 
humiliated herself by bestowing a princess on the Corsican as a 
wife in place of his divorced Empress Josephine. The King of 
Sweden, who had remained almost alone in obstinate defiance, 
was deposed and replaced by Charles xiii., who nominated Berna- 
dotte, one of Napoleon's marshals, as his heir ; and Bernadotte 
remained in Sweden as its effective ruler. Louis Bonaparte was 
not a sufficiently subservient ruler in Holland, Napoleon's 
so he was removed and his kingdom annexed to Supremacy, 
France, as the papal states in Italy had also been 1810, 
annexed. The princes of the Confederation of the Rhine were 
Napoleon's humble servants, Prussia was under his heel, and 
Austria dared not move against him. In Europe there remained 
only one power, Russia, which would not take orders from him ; 
Alexander was growing distinctly hostile, and refusing to carry 
out the Continental System. 

To drive the British out of the Peninsula would not annihilate 
Britain; but Napoleon clung to his belief that the perfected 
Continental System would have that effect, though 4. Napoleon's 
she was the one country where commerce and Fal1 - 
manufactures continued to thrive in spite of war. Her exclusion 
from the Continent was more ruinous to the Continent than to 
her. Still, Napoleon counted that the one means of crushing this 
persistent enemy was to bend Russia to his will ; and to this end 
he made vast preparations for a grand Russian campaign. 

The army with which Napoleon entered Russia in June 181 2 



366 THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 

numbered nearly 400,000 men in spite of the Peninsular War ; 
for he was able to draw upon the subject or dependent states for 
The Moscow contingents. The Russian generals retired before 
Campaign, him, enticing him into the heart of Russia, where 
1812 ' the provision of supplies was an eternally 

increasing difficulty. When Napoleon reached Smolensk, he 
found it in flames. At Borodino, the Russians stopped to fight 
him ; he won the battle but at the cost of 30,000 men. He 
reached Moscow in September and found it deserted ; but the 
city was fired over the heads of his soldiers. The Russians 
would not give battle ; but whatever move he made they could 
hang on his flanks and cut off the supplies of the fast dwindling 
army. The road by which he had come was a desert. A re- 
treat began ; the grand army was already a wreck before, with 
terrific suddenness, a cruel winter set in and practically 
annihilated it. 

This huge disaster gave Europe its opportunity. The 
Prussian people forced the Prussian government to rise and 
Napoleon at fling off the yoke. Russia came to Prussia's aid ; 
bay, 1813. Austria hung back at first ; but in effect, Napoleon 
now had a more dangerous, because a whole-hearted, combina- 
tion against him than ever before. Yet in spite of his frightful 
losses he succeeded again in bringing huge armies into the field, 
though at last in doing so he weakened the forces in Spain so 
that Wellington was able to drive them out of the Peninsula 
altogether. When Austria joined the coalition, Napoleon was 
still able to win a great victory at Dresden, but at Leipzig he 
was overwhelmed, and driven back into France. But for his 
unconquerable self-confidence he could still have obtained from 
the allies terms which would have left him France bounded by 
the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrenees ; but these he would not 
1814 accept. The allies invaded France ; at length the 

Napoleon emperor found that his marshals were unanimous 

exiled. - n declaring that further resistance was madness. 

He submitted, and abdicated. The allies deported him to the 
island of Elba in the Mediterranean ; and a European Congress 
proceeded to settle the affairs of Europe, and of France in 
particular, 



NAPOLEON, FIRST CONSUL AND EMPEROR 367 

The Bourbon dynasty was recalled to France in the person of 
Louis xviii. Broadly speaking, the diplomatists and monarchs 
proposed as nearly as possible to reconstitute the position as it 
had been before the French Revolution ; France was to be the 
France of the French monarchy when it fell. In a European 
November, a congress of the five great powers — Congress. 
Russia, Prussia, Austria, France, and Great Britain — assembled 
at Vienna to complete the settlement on the old lines ; a restora- 
tion of all the ruling families to their dominions, without regard 
to any sentiments of nationalism, or any of the principles from 
which the Revolution had started. 

The settlement, however, was deferred. Conflicting interests 
were not easily reconciled, and quarrels among the 
powers themselves threatened. Napoleon, brooding in Elba, 
determined to strike one more blow for his lost dominion. He 
escaped from his island, landed on March 1st near Cannes, and 
appealed to the French nation's loyalty to its emperor. The 
appeal was successful. His progress towards Paris 5 The 
became a triumphal march, and the Bourbons took Hundred 
hasty flight. The powers stopped their quarrels, ays ' 1815, 
and agreed to make war on Napoleon till he was effectively 
extinguished. But coalitions move slowly, and Napoleon was 
swift and sudden. By the beginning of June his army was 
organised ; while only the Prussians under Bliicher and a hetero- 
geneous force under Wellington were ready in Belgium to meet 
him. 

Napoleon's object was the usual one — to split Bliicher and 
Wellington, and to crush first one and then the other. He 
struck at the centre, and was so far successful that he defeated 
Bliicher at Ligny and drove him to retreat — as Napoleon 
thought, on his base at Namur. Wellington beat off an attack 
at Quatre Bras on the same day, but being unable The 
to effect the junction with Bliicher, fell back on Waterloo 
Waterloo to cover Brussels. On June 18th, Cam P ai S n - 
Napoleon attacked him, having sent a column to take care of 
Bliicher. But Bliicher had retired not on Namur but on Wavre, 
in order to join Wellington at Waterloo, and the force sent in 
pursuit failed in its purpose. From a little before midday the 



368 THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 

battle raged, the British and Hanoverians stubbornly repelling 
the fierce onset. In the course of the afternoon the approach 
of the Prussians on the French right began to make itself felt. 
Finally Napoleon hurled the ' Old Guard ' against the British ; it 
was hurled back again, broken and shattered. Then at last the 
British line swept forward as Bliicher crashed in on the French 
flank ; Napoleon's army broke and fled. The exhausted British 
left the pursuit to the Prussians ; but no rally was possible. 

The allies marched on Paris. Napoleon threw himself on 
British generosity and surrendered to the captain of the Better o- 
The End of phon ; but generosity to Napoleon was fraught 
Napoleon. w ^] 1 too many dangers to Europe. The great con- 
queror was sent to end his days on the lonely rock of St. Helena, 
far away in the South Atlantic. The Revolution was over. The 
Napoleonic wars were over. Once again the monarchs set 
themselves to reconstruct Europe. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



1789. 



1790. 
1791. 



1792. 



1793. 



Book viii. 1789 to 18 15 
guiding dates 



May. 



1794. 



Dec. 



Jan. 



1795 



Meeting of States- 
General 

National Assembly. 
Fall of Bastille . June. 

End of Feudalism . Aug. 

Leopold 11., emperor Feb. 

Death of Mirabeau March 

Flight to Varennes . June 

The Constitution . Sept. 

Legislative Assembly Oct. 

France declares war April. 

Francis II., emperor July 

September Massacres Sept. 

National Convention Sept. 

Conquest of Savoy 
and Belgium 

Louis xiv. beheaded 

First coalition 

Second partition of 
Poland 

Committee of Public 
Safety . 

Fall of Girondists A 

Reign of Terror >- June 1801 
begins . . J 

Robespierre supreme 

Thermidorean Re- 
action . 



1796. 



1797. 



1798. 



1799. 



April 1 800. 



April 



July 1802. 



2 A 



Third partition of 
Poland . . . Jan. 

Break-up of the 

Coalition . April-June 

The Directory estab- 
lished . . . Oct. 

Bonaparte in Italy, 

Lodi . . . May 

Areola . . ^ 

Accession of Paul I. V Nov 
in Russia . J 

St. Vincent . . Feb. 

Treaty of Campo 

Formio . . Oct. 

Bonaparte in Egypt June 

Battle of the Nile . Aug. 

Second Coalition . Dec. 

Suvarov in Italy . April 

Return of Bonaparte, 
who becomes First 
Consul . . . Oct. 

Marengo . . . June 

Hohenlinden . . Dec. 

Battle of Aboukir ^ 

Accession of Alex- L March 
ander 1. . J 

Battle of the Baltic . April 

Peace of Amiens . March 

369 



37° 
1803. 



THE EUROPEAN CONVULSION 



England 

. May 

I March 



War with 
renewed 

1804. Code Napoleon 

issued . 
Murder of Due 

d'Enghien . 
Napoleoni., emperor 

1805. Third Coalition 
Ulm and Trafalgar . 
Austerlitz . ^ 
Treaty of PresburgJ 

1806. Confederation of 

Rhine . 
End of Holy Roman 

Empire 
Jena 
Continental System . 

1807. Tilsit 

Stein in Prussia 



May 

April 

Oct. 

Dec. 



July 

Aug. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
July 



July 



1808. Joseph Bonaparte, 

King of Spain. 
Spanish rising . June 
Peninsular Warbegins Aug. 

1809. Wagram Campaign^ 
Talavera . . J 

1 8 10. Marriage of Napo- 

leon . . .March 

181 1. Battles in the Penin- 

sula 

18 1 2. Salamanca . . July 
The Moscow Cam- 
paign . . July-Dec. 

1 8 13. Battle of Vittoria . June 
Battle of Leipzig . Oct. 

1 8 14. Napoleon sent to 

Elba . . . April 

1 81 5. Return of Napoleon March 
Waterloo Campaign June 



LEADING NAMES 

Louis XVI. — Mirabeau — Leopold II. — Francis II. — Frederick 
William II. — Danton— Robespierre— Carnot— Frederick William III. 
— Napoleon Bonaparte — Moreau — Nelson — Suvarov — Paul I. — 
William Pitt— Alexander I.— Joseph Bonaparte— Stein— Wellington 
— Bliicher. 

NOTES 

India. Indian history has now become practically that of the 
gradual expansion of British ascendency, till the East India Company 
is recognised as the sovereign of India in place of the Mogul. The 
process, however, was not one of aggressive conquest. The actual 
British dominion, under British government, was only a small portion 
of the Peninsula in 1790. There were sundry native princes, viceroys, 
and confederacies, each of whom controlled larger territories than 
the British. Each regarded every other power, but the British most 
of all, as an aggressive rival in competition for supremacy. Lord 
Wellesley, Wellington's elder brother, was the only governor-general 
who sought to acquire territory ; though whenever war was forced 
on the British, the aggressor inevitably had to cede territory when 
the war ended. Wellesley's method was, to extend to native states 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 371 

the military protection of forces in British pay under British officers, 
territory being ceded by the protected state in order to meet the 
cost. Hence British territory was considerably extended before 
181 5, while the protected states were also under British control, 
though not under direct British government. 

The Industrial Revolution. A series of mechanical inventions and 
discoveries, chiefly made in Great Britain during the latter part of 
the eighteenth and the earlier part of the nineteenth century, were 
destined entirely to revolutionise the processes of manufacture in 
all countries, though Great Britain was the first to profit by them. 
First, machinery worked by hand enabled one worker to produce a 
very much larger amount of work in a given time. Then machinery 
driven by water-power multiplied production ; and then machinery 
driven by steam-power displaced that driven by water-power. Where 
machinery was set up, workers congregated ; and thus great manu- 
facturing towns came into being. Great Britain obtained a 
tremendous lead over the rest of the world, partly from natural 
advantages, partly because her soil alone was not devastated by the 
Napoleonic wars ; while, as we have seen, Napoleon's continental 
system presented her with the whole sea-borne trade of Europe. 

The End of Feudalism. At the close of the Middle Ages, Feudalism ,, 
ceased to be the basis of military organisation. The essence of 
feudalism is the exchange of service for protection ; that of the 
modern community is the exchange of service for wages, the state 
being responsible for protection. Modern military organisation 
began when the state paid its troops instead of depending on feudal 
levies. But feudalism all over Europe established a hereditary dis- 
tinction between the protecting class who owned the land and the 
class who rendered them service. The claim to service was main- 
tained while the claim for protection lapsed. The strong continued 
to hold their privileges. Politically, feudalism yielded to absolutism ; 
that is, the central governments were able to control the great 
feudatories ; but the subordinate classes were still not admitted to 
political rights. Socially, feudalism remained, that is, the class dis- 
tinctions and the privileges of the hereditary landowners were 
scarcely abated, except in the British isles ; where, in England at 
least, the classes merged in each other without the sharp dividing 
lines of continental Europe. The French Revolution destroyed 
hereditary divisions and hereditary privileges in France, and greatly 
weakened them throughout Europe ; they still survived with modifica- 
tions, but they ceased to be regarded as fundamental laws on which 
the existence of social order depended. 



BOOK IX 
THE MODERN NATIONS 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE EUROPEAN POWERS FROM 1815 TO 1 87 1 

The Congress of Vienna, having for its guiding spirits the 
Austrian Metternich and the Frenchman Talleyrand, rearranged 
the map of Europe. The French border was nearly 1. Recon- 
that of 1789. In Italy, Austria had Lombardy struction, 
and Venetia ; the Bourbons were restored in Naples. Sardinia 
recovered Savoy. The German Empire had ceased to exist, but 
the German states were formed into a very loose confederation 
under Austrian presidency. Napoleon's Grand Duchy of Warsaw 
was not returned to Prussia but was transferred as the Kingdom 
of Poland to Alexander of Russia. Prussia by way of compensa- 
tion got half Saxony and a group of Rhine provinces which 
brought her borders in direct contact with France. Hanover 
became a kingdom, as yet attached to the British Crown. The 
Crown of Holland and Belgium together was bestowed on the 
house of Orange. 

Only this much was left of the Revolution, that Louis xvm. 
was required to grant a charter of liberties in France providing 
some share in the government to the people more Revival of 
or less after the British model ; sundry minor Absolutism. 
German states followed suit, and Alexander gave a charter to 
Poland. But no corresponding move was made, in spite of 
vague declarations, in Prussia, Austria, or Russia; and the 
charters were all treated as Acts of Grace on the part of the 
Crown, revocable by the Crown if the people proved ungrateful. 
It was the divine right of kings to rule, and their pious duty to 
rule beneficently • but the people were not to be permitted to 
question their decrees. These in effect were the principles of 

375 



376 THE MODERN NATIONS 

the Holy Alliance — an agreement entered upon by the Tsar, 
the Emperor, and the King of Prussia — principles which they 
preferred to enforce in dominions other than their own. At the 
same time, the principles of nationalism were totally ignored in 
Italy, in the union of Belgium and Holland, and in the Austrian 
Empire, which was part German, part Magyar, part Slav, and 
part Italian. 

There are then two political movements at work in Europe in 
the half-century following Waterloo. One, the birth of the 
Democracy French Revolution, is the popular demand for the 
and expression at least of the popular voice in the 

Nationalism. g 0vernmen t. The other is the nationalism which 
had been quickened by the Napoleonic wars ; a demand in part 
for national independence of alien control, in part for the unifica- 
tion of broken-up and divided nationalities. The two movements 
are found working simultaneously in some regions ; but there is 
no law of association between them. Italy in her struggle for 
liberation and unity succeeds not under republican leadership 
but under the constitutional monarchists. German unity is 
achieved by statesmen who have no popular leanings. But in 
187 1, fifty-six years after Napoleon's sun had set, when the later 
Napoleon's sun had set also, Germany was at last a consolidated 
empire, Italy was a consolidated and constitutional kingdom, 
Greece and Belgium were constitutional kingdoms, and the 
release of the Slavonic states of the Turkish Empire from 
Mohammedan control was in the near future; while in Great 
Britain the balance of political power had passed first from the 
landowning class to the manufacturers, and then from the manu- 
facturers to the ' working '-classes. The only countries in Europe 
where unqualified despotism survived were Russia and Turkey. 

At the outset, it appeared that the victory was to be with ab- 
solutism. In Spain, Ferdinand vn. was no sooner restored than 
The Victory he cancelled his promises and ruled despotically. 
of Reaction. Austria followed the same line in Lombardy ; the 
King of Sardinia in Piedmont, the King of Naples, and the 
masters of the independent duchies in the north of Italy, took 
their cue from Austria. In England, the Tory government 
adopted severe measures for the repression of all expression of 



THE EUROPEAN POWERS FROM 1815 TO 1871 377 

popular discontent. In France, Louis xvm. resisted the pressure 
of the ultra-royalists, and maintained what might be called a con- 
stitutional system ; but here too the reactionary party, headed 
by the king's brother and heir, obtained the ascendency from 
182 1 onwards. In Spain, however, discontent reached such a 
pitch that a popular revolt in 1820 led to the compulsory 
acceptance by the king of the constitution which had been 
formulated in 181 2 during the Peninsular War. This 'constitu- 
tion of 1 81 2' became the watchword of the revolutionists who 
were at the same time rising in Naples, in other parts of Italy, 
and in Sicily. The Holy Alliance was brought to bear on these 
disturbances, Great Britain and France not being prepared to 
intervene actively. France indeed joined with the Holy Alliance ; 
and in Spain, Portugal, and Italy popular resistance was crushed 
and absolutism restored. 

The death of Louis xvm. placed his brother on the French 
throne as Charles x. in 1824, and the government became per- 
sistently reactionary. But the effect was not unlike 2 R es i S t a nce 
that of the accession of James 11. in England in to the 
1685. The sober constitutionalists combined to Reactl0n - 
effect an almost bloodless revolution in July 1830; the king 
was forced to abdicate, and his cousin Louis Philippe, Duke of 
Orleans, was raised to the throne as a constitutional 
king, Charles with his son and grandson retreating 
to exile in England. This was the first definitely successful 
revolt against the reaction. 

At the same time, nationalism won its first victory. The system 
of government in the Turkish Empire was of the oriental, not 
the western type. The sultans were very much in the hands of 
the troops called Janissaries, the provinces were left to the pro- 
vincial governors, and Egypt under Mehemet Ali paid very little 
attention to the sovereign at Constantinople. It Greek 
was, however, primarily the Christian populations, Independ- 
subjected to Mohammedan rulers, which suffered ence ' 
from serious oppression. A rising which began in Moldavia, 
in 1820, was followed by a general insurrection in the Morea, 
the southern peninsula of Greece, and in the islands of the 
^Egean. In spite of strong sympathy in Russia and in England, 



378 THE MODERN NATIONS 

the Greeks were left without European support, other than that 
of volunteers such as Lord Byron. They held their own, though 
it seemed certain that they must succumb to the Turks re- 
enforced by a fleet and army from Egypt. The deciding factor 
in the situation was the accession of Nicholas i. as Russian Tsar. 
Russian policy was thenceforth guided exclusively by Russian 
interests. In spite of Metternich, Russia, Great Britain,, and 
France came to an agreement to force concessions upon the 
sultan — a process which immediately involved their sinking the 
Egyptian fleet at the battle of Navarino. Ultimately, after a war 
in which Russia was left to act by herself, Turkey was compelled 
to allow Greece to become an independent constitutional 
monarchy under the young Prince Otho of Bavaria. 

The ' July Revolution ' in France was immediately followed 
by the revolt of Belgium against Dutch domination, and of 
Poland against the Russian supremacy; while the peaceful 
manner in which it had been carried out helped very materially 
in the passage in England of the Reform Act which reconstructed 
the House of Commons. Both in France and in England the 
effect was to make the manufacturers and the middle classes the 
controlling power. 

In Belgium the clericals were united to the liberals, because 
of the antagonism between Belgian Catholicism and Dutch 
Belgian Calvinism. The intervention of the powers brought 

independ- about the separation of the two kingdoms, the 
Belgian Crown being bestowed on Leopold of Saxe- 
Coburg, uncle of the Princess Victoria, who four years later be- 
came Queen of England. It may be noted in passing that, as 
the Crown of Hanover could not pass to a female, its union with 
that of Great Britain was then brought to an end, and the way 
prepared for its ultimate incorporation with Prussia. The Polish 
insurrection exemplified the fatal incapacity of the Poles for 
acting in unison ; in spite of heroic resistance it was ruthlessly 
stamped out, and Poland was turned into a province of the 
Russian Empire. 

Meanwhile, the Spanish dominions in Central and South 
America had broken away from Spain, and Brazil had become 
separated from Portugal as an empire under the Portuguese 



THE EUROPEAN POWERS FROM 1815 TO 1871 379 

king's eldest son, Pedro, who could not hold the Crowns in con- 
junction. When King John died, Pedro claimed the Portuguese 
succession for his daughter Maria, who was opposed Spain and 
by his brother Miguel. Ultimately, by the active Portugal, 
assistance of Britain and with French support, the Crown was 
secured to Maria, who married Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, 
brother of the King of the Belgians. Miguel, successful at the 
outset, had ruled with brutal despotism, and Maria's cause and 
her victory were made the cause and the victory of constitu- 
tional principles. In Spain the death of Ferdinand in 1833 led to 
a struggle for the succession between his brother Don Carlos and 
his widow Christina, representing their infant daughter Isabella. 
Here also the cause of the female succession was identified with 
that of constitutionalism and was ultimately successful ; though 
in the long-run constitutionalism did not profit by it. 

Once more, the revolutionary movement was to be roused by 
France. The ' Orleanist ' rule of Louis Philippe was a very 
different thing from that of Charles x., but it was by 3 The Year 
no means satisfactory to the bulk of the French ofRevolu- 
nation. Wealth had become the real source of tlons - 
political power; the conflict between capital and labour was 
growing more acute, and the labouring classes looked to political 
power as the means to their victory in that conflict. The sheer 
feebleness of the government led to its easy over- 

FrsLUCG 

throw in February 1 848 : the royal family retired 
into exile, and for the second time a French Republic was pro- 
claimed. The new Republican government did not realise the 
hopes of the Socialists — the name now being applied to those 
who held that the sources and the control of production should 
be in the hands not of private persons, but of the state or com- 
munity ; but the revolution set an example to Europe which was 
soon plunged in a general ferment. This year, 1848, is known 
as the Year of Revolutions. 

In every German state there arose a clamour for constitutional 
reform so sudden and so unanimous that the princes in general 
were compelled to give way to it, and everywhere 
new constitutions were promulgated before March 
was over. Even at Vienna and in the four kingdoms of Prussia, 



380 THE MODERN NATIONS 

Hanover, Saxony, and Bavaria, the rulers were forced to grant or 
to promise the popular demands. Nevertheless, before the end of 
the year the tables had been turned both in Austria and in Prussia, 
and the monarchists were in the ascendent. But if the popular 
movement met with a partial success, the attendant movement 
for German unity collapsed completely. An assembly of depu- 
ties from all German states was called at Frankfort which 
appointed an administration and set about formulating a German 
constitution. But there was utter disagreement between the 
democrats, the reactionaries, and the constitutional theorists, 
and between those who wanted to include Austria and those who 
wanted Prussia to be the head and to exclude Austria. The final 
result was the collapse of the entire movement, accompanied in 
Austria by the revocation of the recently granted constitution. 

In every other quarter the movement, nationalist or demo- 
cratic or a mixture of the two, broke down, after some initial 
The Austrian success. Hungary, roused by the eloquence of 
Empire. Kossuth, demanded independence ; Bohemia de- 

manded self-government. But there was antagonism instead of 
co-operation between the two. Austrian troops were able almost 
at once to secure Prague, the Bohemian centre, and the defiance 
of Hungary was crushed with aid from the Tsar. Hungary was 
deprived of the degree of self-government which had been 
granted before the insurrection. 

In Italy, Pius ix., who became pope in 1846, had at first 
acquired immense popularity by his liberal attitude. The 
February Revolution and the first disturbance 
at Vienna kindled the spark in Italy ; in one city 
after another the populace rose against the Austrian Dominion, 
and Charles Albert, the Sardinian king, declared war on Austria. 
But the skill of the Austrian general, Radetsky, triumphed ; 
the pope took alarm, when he found himself threatened with 
an Austrian war, and deserted the popular cause ; and the 
Austrians not only forced a humiliating peace on Victor 
Emmanuel, in whose favour Charles Albert abdicated, but also, 
besides crushing revolt in her own provinces with an iron 
hand, gave her aid in stamping out the revolutionary move- 
ments in the rest of Italy. 



THE EUROPEAN POWERS FROM 1815 TO 1871 381 

In France itself the Republic was destined to a very brief 
life. The moderates — that is, the middle-class section — cap- 
tured the government, and intended to model 4. Napoleon 
the new constitution after that of the United IIL 
States of America, giving executive control to an elected 
president and legislative control to elected assemblies. But 
Louis Napoleon, a nephew of the great emperor, procured his 
election to the Presidency. He aimed successfully at obtaining 
the support of the peasantry and the working-classes. Following 
the precedents set by his uncle, he secured his re-election to 
the Presidency by a coup d'etat confirmed by a plebiscite in 
1 85 1, and twelve months later was proclaimed Emperor of the 
French as Napoleon in. on the theory that there had been 
a legitimate Napoleon 11., who never actually succeeded. France 
reappeared as a military empire, whose ruler was in the nature 
of the case obliged to pose as the arbiter of Europe, and to 
win military glory. 

This opportunity soon came. Oppression of Christians in 
the Turkish Empire was used by the Tsar as an excuse for 
intervention ; France claimed that the protection The Crimean 
of the Latin-Church Christians lay with her ; Great War - 
Britain for the last twenty years had been watching Russian 
aggression in ^the East with alarm. So France and England 
supported Turkey and declared war in 1854 when hostilities 
had begun between the eastern powers ; while Prussia and 
Austria, though sympathising, cheerfully left them to do the fight- 
ing. The allies invaded the Crimea, and captured Sebastopol 
after a long siege and a winter in which their troops suffered 
frightful hardships. The Peace of Paris in 1856 neutralised 
the Black Sea and forbade Russia to keep more than six warships 
on it. The terms of the peace were agreed upon by a general 
conference of the Powers. The principle that the voice of 
Europe at large as well as that of the belligerents should be 
taken into account in settling terms of peace was beginning 
to become established. 

Napoleon had won considerable credit from the war : the 
next field of his activities was to be in Italy. Here the success 
of Austria in 1849 na cl only intensified Italian antagonism to the 



382 THE MODERN NATIONS 

existing order. The passionate sentiment of patriotism inspired 
by the pen of Mazzini and the sword of Garibaldi was now to 
Cavour in be guided by the politic brain of Cavour, whom 
Italy. the shrewd King of Sardinia had taken for 

his chief minister. Cavour directed his policy to obtaining 
European support for his schemes of Italian emancipation ; 
and this he knew would not be available if emancipation were 
associated with republicanism. The victory could be won only 
under the banner of Victor Emmanuel and constitutional 
monarchy. For the sake of French and British support, Sardinia 
took part in the Crimean War, and in the congress which con- 
cluded it ; and Cavour took the opportunity to enlist French 
and British sympathies. 

The outcome was a compact under which France was to 
help Sardinia to acquire Venetia and Lombardy from Austria, 
Napoleon in herself receiving Savoy and Nice. Austria injudici- 
Italy. ously adopted the aggressive tone which served 

to warrant French intervention when the refusal of the demands 
she made on Sardinia was followed up by an Austrian invasion 
of Piedmont. France and Sardinia at once joined forces, and 
the campaign was decided in favour of the allies by the battles of 
Magenta and Solferino. Tuscany, Parma, Modena, 
and Bologna all ejected their rulers and offered 
themselves to Victor Emmanuel. Austria, however, was not 
yet beaten to her knees ; and Napoleon, who considered that 
he had done enough for glory and might go further and fare 
worse, deserted his ally. He made a provisional treaty with 
the Austrians at Villafranca, by which Sardinia was to gain 
most of Lombardy but nothing more. Cavour was so indignant 
at the king's acceptance of the terms that he resigned. The 
The Kingdom duchies and Bologna refused to take back their 
of North rulers, and by plebiscite voted solidly for their 

Italy. union with the Sardinian kingdom. Cavour was 

reconciled with the king and returned to office; Napoleon, as 
the price of his support, procured the cession of Savoy and 
Nice to France. Naples (under its Bourbon ruler Francis, who 
had recently succeeded the notorious Ferdinand, known as 
■ Bomba '), the papal states shorn of Bologna, and Venetia which 



THE EUROPEAN POWERS FROM 1815 TO 1871 383 

remained to Austria, still stood outside what was now the 
Sardinian kingdom of Northern Italy. Savoy, though it was 
the ancestral domain of the Sardinian dynasty, was not in fact 
Italian. 

To this kingdom, the audacious enterprise of the great guerilla 
leader Garibaldi added Naples and much of the remaining papal 
territory. On his own responsibility he raised an Garibaldi in 
enthusiastic band of volunteers known as the Sicil y- 
' Thousand,' and flung himself into Sicily, always on the verge 
of revolt against the Bourbon rule. In six weeks he was master 
of the island, and two months later he was conducting what 
was practically a triumphal march through Southern Italy upon 
Naples, where he was hailed as Liberator. Cavour would have 
had no excuse for taking part in this exploit, if the pope had 
not provided it by preparing to attempt the recovery of Bologna. 
The North Italian troops were thus warranted in entering the 
papal states ; while the plain facts justified Victor Emmanuel in 
announcing that the annexation of the two Sicilies alone could 
prevent the establishment of an independent Neapolitan Republic, 
which seemed the most probable outcome of Garibaldi's triumphs. 
Europe on the one hand and Garibaldi on the First King 
other recognised the logic of facts. As the king of Italy, 
advanced into Neapolitan territory, Garibaldi met him and 
greeted him as King of Italy. Rome itself, and Venetia, were 
all that still remained outside the Italian kingdom, whose first 
united parliament met in February 1861. Cavour lived just 
long enough to see the realisation of his hopes. The acquisition 
of Venetia still had to await the war between Prussia and Austria 
which gave it to Italy as Prussia's ally; that of Rome was 
deferred till the war between Prussia and France withdrew the 
French support from the papacy. 

While the cause of Nationalism was being fought out in Italy, 
Prussia was falling under the control of the king, William 1., and 
the minister, Otto von Bismarck, who were to make 
her the head of a new united German Empire. To 
secure this leadership was Bismarck's primary aim ; to that end, 
a supreme army was necessary; and he did not hesitate to 
urge the king to override the Prussian parliament and assume 



384 THE MODERN NATIONS 

what was virtually absolute authority, in order to obtain the 
needed military forces and reforms. The organisation, in the 
hands of Albert von Roon and Moltke, rapidly made the Prussian 
army into the most perfect of military machines. A contest 
for the leadership of Germany between Austria and Prussia was 
approaching ; the victory of Prussia must mean the exclusion 
of Austria from any union of which she was head. It was 
Bismarck's aim to bring the rivalry to an issue at the moment 
most favourable for Prussia. 

The opening came when the death of the King of Denmark 
revived disputed questions as to the succession to the duchies 
Schleswig- of Schleswig and Holstein which were attached 
Hoistein. t t ne Danish Crown. The title of the new king, 

Christian, to them could be challenged. Prussia and Austria 
occupied the duchies after some fighting with the Danes, as 
representing the claims of the German Confederation. By a 
convention at Gastein between the two powers the administration 
of Schleswig was assigned to Prussia and that of Holstein to 
Austria. Bismarck on the one hand procured an alliance with 
Italy which was to be rewarded with Venetia, and on the other 
he beguiled Napoleon into neutrality — by allowing him first to 
expect the cession of the Rhine provinces, and secondly to 
believe that Prussia would have to appeal to France to save her 
from destruction. Meanwhile Austria was being led on to 
formal transgressions of subsisting rights, and the moment 
arrived for Prussia to deal the decisive blow. 

Consummate organisation and perfect readiness for action 
brought what is known as the Seven Weeks' War to a very rapid 
The Seven conclusion. The Italians indeed met with nothing 
Weeks' War. b u t reverses ; but the Prussians had inflicted a quite 
decisive defeat on the Austrians at Koniggratz or Sadowa in less 
than three weeks after the hostilities began. The terms of peace 
gave Prussia all she required, and Bismarck even had to exert 
himself to prevent them from being unduly humiliating to 
Austria. The states of the German Confederation which had 
taken up arms in Austria's quarrel had been simultaneously 
and successfully occupied by the Prussians. The treaty 
which ended the war weakened Saxony, and handed over 



THE EUROPEAN POWERS FROM 1815 TO 1871 385 

Hanover and Hesse as well as Schleswig and Holstein to the 
victors. 

A North German Federation comprising all the northern 
states was at once established, with the King of Prussia as 
hereditary president. Questions of peace and war The ^ 0T ^ 
and the military control were left to Prussia. The German 
old confederation was abolished, Austria was w T ith- Federa 10n - 
drawn from all direct connection with the German states, and 
the southern states, without being admitted to the new Federa- 
tion, were associated with it for military purposes. A Zollverein 
or Customs Union had for some time past helped to develop 
the sense of a unity of interests. Italy was rewarded by the 
cession to her of Venetia. 

But the work of German unification was not yet finished. 
France was hankering after the Rhine provinces — Napoleon had 
expected to obtain them as the price of interven- France and 
tion for the salvation of Prussia. The emperor Prussia, 
had been losing ground in the country. He had been ignored 
in the Schleswig-Holstein affair, and by Russia in her merciless 
repression of Poland's last revolt. He had blundered con- 
spicuously over the Seven Weeks' War, and not less so in an 
attempt to restore an empire in Mexico, which had turned 
itself into a republic. Sooner or later, to protect himself 
and his dynasty, he would be forced to make war on 
Prussia; and, as with Austria, so with France, Bismarck 
meant the inevitable duel to be fought at his own time, 
and with plausible grounds for declaring that France was the 
aggressor. 

Spain provided the Prussian minister with his opportunity, 
when he was satisfied that he had brought the German military 
organisation up to the Prussian standard. The rule The Spanish 
of Queen Isabella was disastrous, utterly bad with- Succession, 
out a redeeming feature. A revolution drove her from the 
country, and Spain wanted a king ; but she wanted none of the 
claimants who desired the crown, which was declined by more 
than one prince to whom it was offered. The Spanish selection 
of a far from zealous candidate, who belonged to the house of 
Hohenzollern, the royal house of Prussia, was resented by 

2 b 



3 86 THE MODERN NATIONS 

Napoleon as a Prussian intrigue ; the negotiations on the subject 

between France and Prussia were easily given a turn which 

roused furious indignation throughout the French 

1870 

and German nations, and on July 19th war was 
declared. In numbers, in discipline, in armament, in general- 
ship, the Germans, who answered solidly to the call of Prussia, 
Franco- proved immeasurably superior. The French 

Prussian fought with desperate valour. Within a month a 

War - series of desperate engagements, culminating in the 

slaughter at Gravelotte where thirty thousand men fell — more 
Germans than French — had been fought, with practically invari- 
able success for the Germans. A great French army was shut 
up in Metz under Bazaine. A fortnight later the emperor with 
another great army was defeated at Sedan, and compelled to 
capitulate, Napoleon himself surrendering. Paris proclaimed 
the empire at an end, and set up a republican government of 
national defence. Before the end of September Paris was 
invested ; in October the German forces before Metz were 
released by the surrender of Bazaine with 150,000 men. A 
desperate resistance was organised in the provinces, but it was 
overwhelmed by the German troops, while Paris was starved 
almost to the last gasp, and was finally subjected to a tremendous 
bombardment. In January negotiations were opened which 
ended in the capitulation of Paris, and the transfer to Prussia 
of Alsace and Lorraine, while France was saddled with the 
payment of a huge indemnity. 

The war, by withdrawing Napoleon's protection from the pope, 
gave Victor Emmanuel his opportunity of incorporating Rome in 
the Italian kingdom, and making it his capital. It made France 
a republic for the third time, and a republic she has remained 
ever since, though the stability of her government has more than 
The New once been threatened. But its most significant 

German outcome was the establishment of the new German 

Empire. Empire with the King of Prussia as hereditary 

emperor. The southern states, excluded from the North 
German Federation, were included in the new empire. Each 
state remains in many respects self-governing, but for purposes 
of war, foreign policy, and commerce, the whole is under the 



THE EUROPEAN POWERS FROM 1815 TO 1871 387 

direction of the Imperial government which is practically 
controlled by Prussia. The Austrian Empire remains outside. 
Austria being cut off from its old position as a state in the 
German Empire, the Austrian emperor of necessity made it his 
aim to render the government of his own empire more 
harmonious, by granting Hungary her own separate diet and 
administration for the conduct of Hungarian affairs. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

AMERICA, AUSTRALASIA, AFRICA, AND ASIA 
TO 187 T 

We have now to turn our attention to the regions outside 
Europe, and first to those which, having been under European 
control, severed themselves politically from the domination of 
the Old World. 

A detailed account of the establishment of the various states 
of South and Central America will be unnecessary. With the ex- 
1 South and ce Ption of Guiana and British Honduras, the whole 
Central of this region at the opening of the nineteenth 

America. century was under the supremacy either of Spain 

or of Portugal. The populations consisted in part of pure 
Spaniards or Portuguese, but the great bulk of them were either 
of actual native descent, or of mixed blood, the government being 
entirely European. The example of the North American British 
colonies, followed by the Revolution in France, awoke revolu- 
tionary and democratic ideas; but the effective impulse to 
separation from Europe was given by the overturn of the Spanish 
and Portuguese monarchies by Napoleon 1. The Portuguese 
royal family itself took refuge in Brazil ; the restoration after 
Waterloo threatened to make Portugal into an outlying province 
of a state which had been its own great colony ; and it was rather 
Portugal which separated itself from the Brazilian Empire than 
Brazil which cut itself loose from Portugal. 

In the Spanish provinces revolution was encouraged by the 
uncertainty as to where true authority was to be found when the 
people of Spain were defying the Bonaparte monarchy. The 
restoration of the Bourbon king Ferdinand, with the absolutist 

3SS 



AMERICA, AUSTRALASIA, AFRICA, AND ASIA 389 

reaction, did not mend matters, and there was a long period 
of struggle between Republicans and Royalists from one end 
of the continent to the other ; which ended in the South 
ejection of the royalists, and the establishment American 
of various republics controlled by military dictators Repu 1CS# 
which combined and dissolved their combinations in a very 
bewildering fashion. Ultimately the whole of Spanish South 
America took shape as nine independent republics ; in which 
it still appeared for a long time that every president or virtual 
dictator held his position so long as he could escape assassina- 
tion and crush rivals, but no longer. Stable governments, how- 
ever, at last succeeded, and the way was prepared for a great 
development of South American wealth and commerce. A 
similar process took place in Central America and in Mexico. 

When the British Empire was torn in two by the war of 
American Independence, the new nation which emerged con- 
sisted only of the thirteen British colonies which 2> Tlie 
occupied the sea-board between Nova Scotia and United 
Florida. They, like the French revolutionists, had states \ 
before them the task of inventing a constitution, which should 
at once satisfy the demand of each separate member of the 
United States for self-government, and provide a central govern- 
ment which could enforce what would be to the common 
advantage as against the selfish claims of individual The 
states. Under the constitution devised, each state Constitution, 
had its own separate legislature and administration, while there 
was a central or federal legislature and administration in which 
all shared. The federal administration was completely controlled 
by a president elected for a term of four years. 

The lands to the westward, beyond the borders of the existing 

states, were under the control of the federal government. As 

these lands were occupied by new settlers pushing 

e i • n Expansion, 

westwards, they were formed into new states, and 

added to the number of the original thirteen, with state govern- 
ments on the same model. Thus the United States gradually 
expanded westwards till the Pacific was reached, the appropria- 
tion of Texas involving a war with Mexico in 1847. The war 
also secured California to the United States, and about the 



390 THE MODERN NATIONS 

same time the northern boundary between them and British 
North America — all of which was subsequently included in the 
Dominion of Canada — was fixed by treaty. 

The expansion accentuated the important problem of slavery. 
The leading constitutional difficulty of the new nation was that 
North and of reconciling state rights and federal rights. On 
South. two questions the interests of the northern group 

of states clashed with those of the southern group. The wealth 
of the south lay in its plantations, notably cotton and tobacco, 
which were worked by slave labour. In the north there was 
no demand for slave labour, and wealth was produced by 
agriculture and manufactures. The manufacturers of the north, 
faced by the competition of Europe, sought to keep out the 
competition by high tariffs on imports. The south having 
no competition to face objected to high tariffs as raising the 
price of the goods which the southerners wanted to purchase. 
The south, depending on slave labour, found scriptural 
warrant for the institution of slavery. The north, not depend- 
ing on slave labour, perceived that the institution of slavery 
was immoral and ought to be abolished, or at least forbidden 
where it was not already established, as where new states 
were recognised. As the north tended to become pre- 
dominant in the federal government, the south became 
increasingly insistent on state rights, and increasingly opposed 
to federal imposition of tariffs and federal interference 
with slavery. 

The point was at last reached when the southern states 
declared their right to secede from the union, and the northern 
The American states declared that secession was rebellion. The 
Civil War. right of withdrawing from a union of states is the 
characteristic distinction of what is called a Confederation from 
what is called a Federation. The southerners claimed that the 
union was only a Confederation, and so were called Confederates ; 
the northerners, for the corresponding reason, were called 
Federals. To admit the right of secession would at once have 
split the new nation into two antagonistic nations, and 
would have left both in the future without any security for 
permanence. 



AMERICA, AUSTRALASIA, AFRICA, AND ASIA 391 

The war was waged with all the bitterness which generally 
marks civil broils. At the outset the southerners proved them- 
selves superior in military skill, but the strength of numbers 
lay with the north. Capable leaders came to the victory of 
front as the fight went stubbornly on — the north Federalism, 
directed by the great President Abraham Lincoln. At last the 
tide turned in favour of the north, with which in the end the 
victory lay decisively. The cause of union had won, and with 
it the cause of slave emancipation. The great negro-slave 
population received freedom, though the race-antagonism 
between the black and the white citizens of the United States 
became no less acute than the antagonism between black slaves 
and white masters. 

Great Britain's severance from the thirteen colonies did not 
destroy her colonial power; it did not even cut her off from 
America. Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and 3. The British 
Canada held to the British connection. Many Empire, 
loyalists emigrated from the new American republic into 
Canada, so as to remain under the British flag. Thus in 
course of time friction developed between the old 
French population and the increasing numbers of 
the British, and between both and the home government 
which continued to control the administration. A revolt in 
1837 ted to a reorganisation of the whole system. Canada had 
been divided into two ; the two parts now became self-governing 
provinces of one colonial state, something like the separate 
states of the American union. In 1840 the mother country 
was waking up to the fact that great colonies with a future of 
expansion before them might well claim for themselves the 
constitutional liberties which English and Scots had won at 
home a century and a half before — the ' Responsible ' Govern- 
ment, which means that the will of the elected legislative 
assemblies controls the appointment and the dismissal of the 
administrative officers. From that time the principle has pre- 
vailed of granting to every British colony ' responsible ' govern- 
ment as soon as it has a population sufficiently advanced and 
sufficiently organised to conduct the management of its own 
affairs. As with the United States the lands westward to the 



392 THE MODERN NATIONS 

Pacific were gradually occupied by British settlers; and the 
whole of British North America with the exception of the island 
of Newfoundland was ultimately incorporated in the dominion 
of Canada. 

Bereft of half North America, the British Empire almost 
unconsciously expanded into a new continent. Although for 
centuries Portuguese and Dutch had occupied lands 
in the great eastern Archipelago, Australia remained 
unexplored and unoccupied until Captain Cook visited it in 
1770. Eighteen years later it was annexed by Great Britain, 
and the first British settlement was planted on its shores. The 
•primary object was to find a new region for the deportation of 
criminals who were no longer wanted for forced labour in British 
colonies. The new territory was in part taken up by settlers 
other than the convicts sent to penal settlements. By slow 
degrees they spread, and New South Wales was organised as a 
colony. No material resistance was offered by the nomadic 
native races, an exceptionally undeveloped type of humanity. 
Emigrants from home increased in numbers, more of the 
continent was taken up, and separate colonies under separate 
governments were established, including the comparatively 
remote islands of New Zealand. The movement towards self- 
government already noticed in Canada was brought to bear 
also in Australasia; and an immense impulse was given to 
immigration, and to the development of manufactures, to meet 
the needs of the growing population, by the discovery of gold- 
fields. 

The northern sea-board of Africa on the Mediterranean had 
been included in the civilised world ever since the days of 
South Carthage. To Europeans the rest of the continent 

Africa. W as unknown till the voyages of the Portuguese 

led to the establishment of trading settlements at points on the 
coast. There was no penetrating inland. Only the Dutch 
discovered at the southern extremity a land and a climate where 
they could settle and remain from generation to generation. 
Arabs took possession of the east coast, and south of them the 
Portuguese retained a foothold; practically the whole interior 
was occupied by negro tribes which occasionally developed 



AMERICA, AUSTRALASIA, AFRICA, AND ASIA 393 

remarkable powers of military organisation, but otherwise seemed 
to be incapable of progress. 

The Napoleonic wars transferred the Dutch colony to the 
British. The transfer was confirmed, for cash, when William of 
Orange became King of Holland at the European cape 
restoration. Twenty years later, a large portion of Colony, 
the Dutch population, half ruined by the abolition of slavery 
and wholly disgusted at what they looked upon as the very 
dangerous restraints imposed on them in their dealings with the 
warlike negro tribes across the border, withdrew inland out of 
reach of the British government, and were ultimately allowed or 
encouraged to set up two independent republics, beyond the 
Orange River, and beyond the Vaal. But still, only a very 
few adventurous travellers, inspired either by missionary zeal 
or by a passion for exploration, had penetrated at all into the 
vast interior regions. Africa was still emphatically the ' Dark 
Continent.' 

In Asia two European powers were steadily advancing. The 
devastation wrought by the marauding bands of the Pindaris in 
Central India, encouraged by Mahratta princes, brought on a 
war which broke up the power of the Mahratta 
states, and added largely to the British territory. n ia " 
An ill-omened expedition to Afghanistan with the object of 
establishing there a dynasty which would resist Russian progress 
ended in disaster only partially retrieved by the victories of a 
punitive expedition which followed. The Sikh state in the Punjab 
was encouraged to attack the British, and two wars following 
each other with a brief interval ended with the annexation of 
the Punjab to British India in 1849. A rare act of deliberate 
British aggression had just before brought Sindh, the territory 
of the Lower Indus, into the British region ; and immediately 
afterwards the outrageous conduct of the King of Burmah made 
necessary the annexation of a great part of his kingdom, on the 
east of the bay of Bengal . In 1 85 7 the outbreak of a tremendous 
mutiny which spread over nearly all the native troops in Northern 
India, but especially on the Ganges basin, endangered the 
British rule. In six months, however, the back of the revolt was 
broken, and in twelve months the mutineer forces were practi- 



394 THE MODERN NATIONS 

cally crushed. The immediate outcome was the disappearance 
of the East India Company, and the transfer of the government 
of India to the British Crown. Since that time there has been 
no war within India, though there has been plenty of fighting 
on and beyond the border. A third of the whole area remains 
under the government of native princes owning the British 
sovereignty. 

The other European power which advanced was Russia, under 
whose sway the central Asian districts passed as she moved 
Russia in forward step by step — her movements anxiously 
Central watched by some statesmen in London and most 

Asia " statesmen in India. British diplomacy permitted 

her to acquire an ever-increasing influence in Persia, a power 
which in itself was dangerous only because the Persian Shah is in 
the eyes of many Mohammedans the head of Islam, and a sub- 
stantial portion of the Indian population is Mohammedan. But 
to Russia with designs upon India, a subservient Persia might 
prove extremely useful. 

But in the far east of Asia there are two nations, China 
and Japan, with histories dating in one case from a period 
4. China before Europe had any history and in the 

and other from an earlier period than any existing 

apan. European state. With neither had Europe come 

sufficiently in contact to affect her history till the nineteenth 
century opened. Before it closed, both, though in very different 
ways, were becoming profoundly important. 

The Chinese belong definitely to the Mongolian group of 
peoples in which we are accustomed to include the non-Aryan 
China's tribes which have invaded Europe during the 

past. Christian era, the Turks, the Mongols proper who 

followed Genghis Khan, and the Manchus, the stock to which 
belongs the dynasty now reigning in China. Historical records 
compiled certainly before the sixth century B.C. carry a tolerably 
authentic history back to 2000 years earlier, before Hammurabi 
ruled in Babylon, about the era of the first Sargon. The 
Chinese had a highly organised political system and an advanced 
civilisation before Rome was founded; they had invented the 
art of writing when, in the sixth century B.C., the mystical religion 



AMERICA, AUSTRALASIA, AFRICA, AND ASIA 395 

called Taoism was taught by Lao-Tse, and a philosophy of 
material common sense was formulated by Confucius, who might 
also be called the father of Chinese history. Four hundred 
years later Buddhism found its way among them. They had in- 
vented printing five hundred years before the art was discovered 
in Europe. In the thirteenth century a.d. China was overrun by 
the Mongols, and the Mongol dynasty of Khublai Khan was 
established, of whose splendours the Venetian traveller Marco 
Polo brought his own report to Europe. A century later the 
Mongol dynasty had been ejected by Chinese rulers, but in 
the seventeenth century the barbarian Manchus conquered 
their civilised neighbours and established the still reigning 
Manchu dynasty. It was at about the same time that the 
European traders in the east first brought tea from China to 
Europe. 

But the Chinese government did not encourage intercourse 
with foreigners, whether missionaries or traders ; and attempts to 
exclude British trade brought about the first war Q^i n3li and 
between China and a European power in 1840. the 
Its conclusion opened certain ports to British trade, E^oP 63 - 118, 
and Hong-Kong was ceded to the same power, under the treaty 
of Nanking. A few years later there broke out in China a great 
semi-religious insurrection known as the Taiping rebellion, which 
was still in full swing when the government again made it 
necessary for the British to go to war with them, this time with 
French support. The victories of the allies and their entry 
into Pekin procured a further treaty, giving extended trading 
rights to the Europeans ; and the Taiping rebellion was shortly 
afterwards brought to an end with the aid of British officers. 

Trustworthy Japanese history goes back no further than the 
seventh century of our era, when a Japanese empire was certainly 
in existence. The Japanese race had probably Mediaeval 
taken possession of the islands some six hundred Japan. 
years before ; their origin was probably mixed, but contained a 
Chinese element. In the course of time a system developed 
something like that of European feudalism, in which there was 
no firm central government, and great baronial families who 
owned all the land strove for supremacy. The great Mongol 



396 THE MODERN NATIONS 

invasion at the close of the thirteenth century was destroyed 
partly in battle but chiefly by a tremendous storm. There 
was a nominal emperor, called the Mikado, but he had no 
effective power. The real rulership passed into the hands of 
the ministers called Shoguns, of whom there were successive 
dynasties. 

In the sixteenth century the Portuguese and the Jesuit 
missionaries first brought Europeans in contact with Japan. At 
Japanese thisperiod great prominence attaches to the Samurai, 

Isolation. a military class corresponding to the knights of 

European feudalism. Japan, however, remained in almost en- 
tire seclusion from the rest of the world, retaining what may be 
called its exaggerated mediaevalism, till a new spirit of inquiry 
and progress began to awake in the nineteenth century. The 
Dutch were the only foreigners who had been allowed some 
sort of permanent foothold on the islands, and through them 
adventurous Japanese began to acquire some knowledge of 
western science and history. But other weste.n nations were 
endeavouring to persuade Japan to open her gates. In 1854 the 
Japanese government was induced to sign a treaty, admitting the 
United States to enjoy commercial privileges at two ports. 
Similar treaties followed in rapid succession with Great Britain, 
Russia, and Holland. In 1862 a Japanese embassy was de- 
spatched to Europe and America, which brought back much 
enlightenment to the hitherto secluded nation. But it was the 
still unenlightened whose violent aversion to the foreigners caused 
outbreaks which in turn compelled the European powers to con- 
certed action and a naval demonstration whereby submission 
The was enforced. But again these events led to a union 

Japanese of the great clans for the overthrow of the Shogun, 

Revolution. the elevation of the Mikado to be in fact the real 
head of the state, and the total ejection of the foreign barbarians. 
But the wise among them were turning to account what they saw 
of European drill discipline and armament, and were gradually 
acquiring a predominant influence. The accession of a new 
Mikado, young and vigorous, aided their cause. The hatred of 
the foreigner declined among them. By 1869 a complete re- 
volution had been effected, not indeed without bloodshed, but 



AMERICA, AUSTRALASIA, AFRICA, AND ASIA 397 

without any prolonged and fierce civil war. The Mikado was 
supreme. Within three years the old feudal system had been 
wiped out altogether, and Japan set about a thorough reorganisa- 
tion which should place her on an equality with the western 
nations. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE NATIONS SINCE 1 87 1 

Only in the east of Europe have European states actually been 
at war with each other since the conclusion of the struggle 
between Germany and France. The pretext for the 
war between Russia and Turkey in 1877-78 was 
found in the Turkish misgovernment of the Danubian and 
Balkan provinces with a population mainly Christian and 
Slavonic. Its motive was to a great extent to be classed as 
The Chris- Nationalist. An insurrection began in Bosnia 
tian and Herzegovina at the extreme north-west of the 

Provinces. Turkish Empire. East of these on the south of the 
Danube come Servia and then Bulgaria. These, with Monte- 
negro on the west, joined the insurrection ; with the sympathy 
of Slavonic Russia and the Slavonic parts of the Austrian 
Empire. Representations from the powers urging reforms were 
disregarded by the Porte — that is, the Turkish government — 
whose troops set about repressing the insurgents ; while the 
stories of their brutalities created much excitement among the 
western nations. With the avowed object of securing at any rate 
the minimum of tolerable government for the Christian popula- 
tions, Russia declared war on Turkey, and was joined by the 
The Russian principality of Roumania on the north of the 
War. Danube, which also declared itself independent. 

The Turks offered a brilliantly stubborn defence at Plevna, but 
were reduced by starvation, and seven months after the war 
began the Russians were at Adrianople. In another two 
months the Porte accepted the treaty of San Stefano (March, 
1878). The British demand that the terms of the treaty should 



THE NATIONS SINCE 1871 399 

be submitted to a European conference almost brought about an 
Anglo-Russian war, but ultimately the major portion of it was 
referred to the Berlin Congress. The main results The Berlin 
were : that Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro Congress, 
were made independent ; Bosnia and Herzegovina were placed 
temporarily under Austrian administration; while Bulgaria 
remained tributary, but otherwise independent. (It may here 
be remarked that after many vicissitudes Bulgaria ultimately 
obtained complete independence, and that on the other hand 
Austria thirty years later transformed her temporary administra- 
tion of Bosnia and Herzegovina into open annexation.) The 
Porte promised reforms in the rest of the Turkish territory, but 
continued successfully to evade carrying out the promises, 
which the 'Concert of Europe' has endeavoured to enforce 
only by ineffective diplomatic pressure — that is, by threats and 
recommendations which it does not translate into armed 
intervention. 

Another portion of the Turkish dominions has brought about 
active British intervention, and threatened to involve Britain 
and France in war. The Khedive of Egypt is a 
sort of viceroy of the Sultan. The enormous debts 
incurred by him led to financial control being placed in the 
hands of the French and British. Financial control inevitably 
means interference with administration, resented by patriotic or 
ambitious natives. The danger that the government would be 
usurped by a ' patriotic ' military party led, in 1882, to the seizure 
of Alexandria by the British, after a bombardment, the over- 
throw of the patriot or rebel leader Arabi Pasha by British 
troops, and the temporary transfer of administrative control to 
the same power. France, having left the work to be done 
by her neighbour, was obliged to assent to the British occu- 
pation, which continues to be professedly temporary at the 
present day. 

The region to the south of Egypt proper, known as the 

Egyptian Soudan, fell under the sway of a barbaric pretender to 

prophetic honours called the Mahdi. Extremely 

F £. . t-. • • i • • Tlie Soudan. 

inefficient Egyptian garrisons occupied points in 

this territory; and the British government, considering it 



4 oo THE MODERN NATIONS 

impracticable for the government to maintain effective control 

there, despatched General C. G. Gordon to effect the withdrawal 

of the garrisons single-handed. Before long he found himself 

shut up in Khartum by the Mahdi and his fanatical followers. 

A tardy relief expedition arrived a day too late. Khartum had 

fallen, and the heroic Gordon was dead. Thirteen years later, 

when the Egyptian army had been completely reorganised and 

thorough preparation made for a permanent reconquest, Khartum 

was recovered, and the Mahdi's forces utterly shattered by Sir 

Herbert Kitchener. The almost simultaneous arrival from the 

south-west of a party of French at Fashoda nearly brought 

about an Anglo-French war, but the French claims were not 

pressed. 

Between the time of the British occupation of Egypt and the 

reconquest of the Soudan, the European powers in a series of 

agreements parcelled out the whole of Africa into 
3. Africa. 

what were called Spheres of Influence. Africa was 

the one quarter of the globe in which vast unexplored territories 
were occupied entirely by uncivilised tribes. Europe recognises 
that a civilised state has property in the territory it occupies ; 
and that one civilised state offends against public law if it 
deliberately seeks to deprive another of territory lawfully held. 
But Europe claims with good reason that civilised powers may 
impose their own control over uncivilised peoples — on which 
principle all the world, except Africa, had been divided before 
The Parti- 1880. The partition of Africa practically meant 
tion- that within the area allotted to each power as its 

sphere of influence, no other power would interfere with its 
proceedings except for such reasons as commanded the general 
assent of Europe. South of the equator, Germany and Portu- 
gal each had two regions, one on the east, and the other on the 
west, the British sphere extending northward from Cape Colony 
between them as far as the great lakes. Here German East 
Africa meets the Congo Free State, allotted to the King of 
the Belgians, which extends to the west coast. Thus a 
broad belt of territory, partly German and partly Belgian, 
stretches across the continent from sea to sea, parting British 
South Africa from the British sphere of influence in the north 



THE NATIONS SINCE 1871 401 

which lies between Egypt and the equator. The eastern ' horn ' 
of Africa was allotted to Italy. The states along the Medi- 
terranean are parted from tropical Africa by great deserts. 
These comprise the independent Morocco on the west ; Algeria, 
for long past under French dominion ; independent Tunis ; and 
Tripoli, which is attached to the Turkish Empire. The 
remainder of Africa north of the equator is divided among 
several powers, France and Britain having the greater shares. 
The island of Madagascar was acquired by France. 

In South Africa, within the area of the British sovereignty 
before the European scramble for African territory began, lay 

the two ' Boer ' republics of the Transvaal and the „ „..-,. 

_ _ r . ', . . ....,, South Africa. 

Orange Free State, the establishment of which had 

been sanctioned in the fifties. Under the impression that the 
Transvaal could not defend itself against the aggressive military 
tribes of the Zulus, the British government annexed it in 1877. 
The Boers protested, and in 1880 took up arms to recover their 
independence. A disaster to British troops at Majuba Hill did 
not prevent the British government from conceding the demands 
of the Boers with some reservations, and the Transvaal Republic 
was reinstated. Not long afterwards the discovery of gold- 
mines in the Transvaal had the usual effect of causing a great 
influx of would-be settlers, who soon raised loud complaints 
against the treatment to which they were subjected by the 
Transvaal government. At the same time a strong The Boer 
conviction gained ground among the British popu- War - 
lation of South Africa that the Dutch population was making the 
substitution of Dutch for British supremacy its deliberate aim. 
Hence in the autumn of 1899 arose the Boer war, in which the 
two republics made common cause. The British, who had 
greatly underrated the strength and determination of their 
opponents, met with a series of grave reverses during the winter; 
but the arrival of large reinforcements soon made it impossible 
for the Boers to meet them in pitched battles. The capitals of 
the republics were occupied, and their annexation was announced; 
but an obstinate guerilla warfare was maintained till the summer 
of 1902, when the Boers recognised that the struggle was 
hopeless. The republics were absorbed into the British Empire, 

2 c 



4 o2 THE MODERN NATIONS 

at first as Crown colonies — that is, with an administration con- 
trolled by the Crown. But after a short interval they were 
given ' responsible ' government, that is, an adminis- 
tration under their own control ; and subsequently 
the whole group of South African colonies were formed in 1909 
into the federal Union of South Africa. This was the last com- 
pleted stage of that federation in groups of portions of the 
British empire which seems to offer the modern solution of the 
problem of retaining Imperial unity without choking local liberty. 
The Canadian dominion had provided the first example, and the 
Australian Federation a second in 1900. 

Meanwhile a new power had entered the colonial competition, 
and been brought into more complicated relations with Europe. 
4. The The United States had not concerned themselves 

United with the doings or the rivalries of other nations 

es ' except where American territory was concerned. 

They had had boundary and fishery disputes with Canada and 
therefore with the central authority of the British Empire ; they 
had asserted the ' Monroe doctrine ' formulated by one of the 
earlier presidents, under which they claimed to intervene if 
European powers sought to act against other American states. 
But now they were to be brought into more direct contact with 
the governments of the Old World. 

This was the immediate result of a war with Spain in which 
they became involved in 1898. The Spanish colonial dominion 
had for long been reduced to Cuba and other West Indian 
islands, and the Philippine group in the Pacific Ocean. We have 
The War seen how powerless the Spanish government itself 

with Spain. had become, before 1870. After a brief era of 
republicanism, Spain had settled the succession problem by 
recalling to the throne Alfonso, the son of the exiled Isabella ; 
but she had not learnt to discipline herself to steady obedience 
to a stable rule, and the government of her colonies was arbitrary 
and uncontrolled. The misgovernment of Cuba led to insur- 
rections, the insurrections led to intervention by the United 
States, and the intervention to war. Neither the fleets nor the 
armies of Spain were in the least capable of coping with those 
of the United States, and when the war was ended she had to 



THE NATIONS SINCE 1871 403 

cede the Philippines to the western republic. The Filipinos 
craved for independence, and a long and wearing guerilla war- 
fare ensued before they submitted to the American The 
supremacy. The war, however, definitely put an end Philippines, 
to the theory of a permanent dividing line between the powers 
of the Old and New Worlds. 

It was not only the acquisition of the Philippines which gave 
the United States an interest in the Pacific Ocean. They, as 
well as the European nations, were intimately concerned with 
the opening up of the two previously isolated eastern nations 
Japan and China. Steadily, systematically, and 5. japan 
scientifically, Japan set herself to learn everything and Cnlna - 
that Europe could teach. Under the guidance of British naval 
officers, she created a navy ; her army was educated by the 
Germans who had just displayed the extraordinary efficiency of 
their military methods in the Franco-Prussian war. China, on 
the other hand, continued to be deaf and blind, to reject, while 
pretending to adopt, all that the western barbarians had to offer ; 
and it was with this great inert mass that Japan first came in 
conflict. The quarrel arose over Korea, a country which neither 
China nor Japan could afford to leave under control of the other 

The war broke out in 1894. The world was inclined to 
believe that China must inevitably overwhelm Japan ; the 
Japanese in fact had matters all their own way, chino- 
both by land and sea. They had never feared Japanese 
China ; what they did fear was that Russia would War * 
dominate China, and that when that happened Japan would be 
in danger. Their object was to dominate China themselves. 
But the treaty of Shimonoseki, which concluded the war, was not 
at all satisfactory to Russia — at that time on warm terms with 
France. Germany joined them in prohibiting Japan from 
appropriating the fruits of the contest. The practical outcome 
was that Russia herself got what the treaty had given to Japan. 

China had fallen into the clutches of the western powers, 
which were not satisfied with the recent partition of Africa. The 
murder of two German missionaries gave Germany The Boxer 
excuse for demanding and obtaining the ' lease ' of a Rebellion, 
considerable territory. Russia followed suit by procuring Port 



404 THE MODERN NATIONS 

Arthur. Irritation against the foreigners and some of the 
Chinese officials who favoured foreign ideas was largely re- 
sponsible for the 'Boxer' rebellion which broke out in 1900; 
for two months the legations of the European powers were 
besieged. Order was not restored till the combined forces of 
six powers, including Japan, appeared at Pekin. 

Japan still had before her a task of immense gravity. Russia's 
advance in Central Asia had been a constant source of alarm and 
perturbation to Great Britain ; it had been the cause of war 
Japan and between that power and Afghanistan in 1879; in 
Russia. x 885 it very nearly produced war between Great 

Britain and Russia herself. Russia was credited with the 
possession of immense military resources and an effective mili- 
tary organisation, and the alarm she succeeded in inspiring on 
all sides made her diplomacy peculiarly successful. But progress 
in the direction of India was checked, and her attention was now 
turned to China and Korea. Japan, however, had not forgiven 
the part she played after the treaty of Shimonoseki, and was pre- 
paring to challenge the Colossus which overawed the west. At 
that time she had yielded when Russia had the support of 
Germany and France ; but now an agreement with Great Britain 
ensured her British support if Russia were not left to fight her 
duel alone. Russia was urged on by a war-party in high places ; 
Japan's attempted negotiations on the subject of Manchuria and 
Korea were treated with contempt. 

At last, suddenly and unexpectedly, Japan struck. Her fleets 
began by attacking and almost disabling the Russian squadrons 
Russo- (February, 1904), and landing her own first army 

Japanese in Korea. By land and sea, from the moment the 

War ' war began, the consummate efficiency of her 

organisation and the utter inefficiency of Russia's were made 
manifest. The slaughters in the great battles of the Franco- 
Prussian war fade into insignificance in comparison with those 
in the terrific engagements by which this war was charac- 
terised ; the whole number killed in action in the entire course 
of the Boer war were less than the Russian losses in many 
single actions. The victory of Japan was decisive and com- 
plete ; Korea passed under Japanese control, and Russia 



THE NATIONS SINCE 1871 405 

withdrew all claims in Manchuria. Japan's material gains 
were disproportionately small, but she had won for herself a 
sudden and tremendous reputation, and for the time at least had 
shattered Russia's reputation irretrievably. The rise of Japan 
to the position of a first-class power, and the collapse of Russian 
prestige, are perhaps the most notable products of the first decade 
of the present century. 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



Book ix., The Modern Nations 

GUIDING DATES 



Revolts in Spain, Naples, 

Sicily, and Portugal . . 1820 
Greece revolts . . .1821 
Accession of Charles x. in 

France .... 1824 
Battle of Navarino . . 1827 
Greek Independence . . 1829 
French 'July 5 Revolution A 
Risings in Belgium and - 1830 

Poland ... J 
Belgian Independence .^ « 
Rising in Italy . . .J 
British Reform Act . .1832 
Accession of Isabella in 

Spain, and expulsion of 

DomMiguelfrom Portugal 1833 
Separation of England and 

Hanover .... 1837 
First Anglo-Chinese war . 1840 
United States war with 

Mexico . . . . 1847 
The Year of Revolutions . 1848 
Annexation of Punjab . 1849 

Coup d'etat in France . 185 1 

Napoleon in., emperor . 1852 
Crimean War . . .1854 
JapaneseTreaty with United 

States .... 1854 

. Indian Mutiny . . . 1857 

Liberation of North Italy . 1859 



Italy becomes one kingdom) S /- 
American Civil War begins/ 
Schleswig-Holstein war . 1863 
End of American Civil 

War. . ' . . . 1865 
Seven Weeks' War . .1866 
Restoration of the Mikado . 1869 
Franco-Prussian War ; 
establishment of French 
Republic .... 1870 
New German Empire pro- 
claimed . . . .1871 
Russo-Turkish War . . 1877 
Berlin Treaty . . .1878 
Afghan War . . . 1879 
Retrocession of Transvaal k 1881 
British occupation of Egypt 1882 
Partition of Africa completed 1891 
War of China and Japan . 1894 
War of United States and 

Spain .... 1898 
Boer War breaks out . . 1899 

Australian Federation 
Boxer Rebellion 
End of Boer War 
War of Russia and Japan 
Annexation of Bosnia by 

Austria .... 1908 
South African Federation . 1909 



■ 1900 

. 1902 
. 1904,,. 



LEADING NAMES 

Alexander I. — Nicholas I. —Ferdinand VII. — Louis XVIII.— 
Charles X. — Louis Philippe — Pius IX. — Garibaldi— Cavour— Victor 
Emmanuel — Dom Miguel— Don Carlos— Queen Isabella— Napoleon 
III.— Bismarck— William I.— Moltke— Abraham Lincoln. 

406 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS 407 



NOTES 

Material Progress. The nineteenth century was the age of the 
most rapid material progress that the world has known. Scientific 
discoveries had initiated the era of steam before it began. Very 
rapidly steam-power became the great instrument of manufactures 
of all kinds. What took place in England was typical of what began 
to take place all over Europe, and in America. A hundred years 
ago men travelled on foot, or on horseback, or by coach : fifty 
years later every country had become a network of railroads. 
Steamships were displacing sailing vessels, and iron-clad warships 
were just about to displace the old 'wooden walls' of England. 
Warfare was being changed by the enormously increased speed 
at which troops could be moved and supplies sent to the front. 
Huge towns were developing : the population of London to-day is 
one-third of the entire population of the British Isles at the beginning 
of the nineteenth century. 

Slavery and Serfdom. In Europe slavery gave place to serfdom 
when the old Roman system fell to pieces. It continued among 
the oriental peoples, and reappeared in the New World with the 
conquest of the native races by the Spaniards. At the same time 
the practice arose of carrying off African negroes to serve as slaves 
in the New World, because they were better labourers than the natives 
of America. The theory was that the slaves lost their freedom 
but gained salvation by becoming Christians. Also it was held 
that they were the children of Ham predestined to serve the children 
of Japhet. It was only towards the end of the eighteenth century 
that the horrors of the slave-trade began to impress the imagination 
of Europeans, and England had the credit of making the suppression 
of the trade — that is, the kidnapping and transportation of African 
natives — a primary demand at the Congress of Vienna. A few years 
later she led the way in abolishing slavery entirely on British soil 
in all parts of the world. Negro slavery however remained in full 
force in the southern states of the American Union, alone among 
civilised nations, till its abolition at the close of the great Civil War. 
Serfdom in Europe was ended by the French Revolution, except 
for its survival in Russia, where emancipation was granted by Tsar 
Alexander II. in 1861. 



INDEX 



Abbasides, 135, 142, 164. 
Abdur Rahman, 142, 162. 
Aboukir, 355, 359. 
Abraham, 16. 
Abu Bekr, 134. 
Acadia, 281, 302, 329, 
Achaean League, 67. 
Acre, 180, 355. 
Actium, 108T 
Aegos Potami, 58. 
Aetolian League, 67. 
Aequi, 73. 
Aetius, 123. 
Afghanistan, 393, 404. 
Afghans, 317. 
Africa, partition of, 400. 

South, 93, 401 ; and see 

Colony. 

Agesilaus, 59. 
Agincourt, 219. 
Agrippa, 108, 112. 
Aix-la-Chapelle, 329. 
Akbar, 287, 320. 
Akhenaten, 19. 
Akkadians, 4. 
Alaric, 122. 
Albania, 226. 
Alberoni, 324. 
Albigenses, 197, 210. 
Alboin, 130. 
Albuquerque, 242. 
Alexander the Great, 62-66. 

1. (Tsar), 359, 360, 362, 

375- 

in. (Pope), 189, 200. 

VI. (Pope), 234, 238, 241. 

Alexius, 174, 176. 
Alfonso the Noble, 195. 

the Wise, 193, 194. 

Alfred, 198. 
Ali, 133, 135. 
Alps, 85. 

Alsace, 283, 285, 386. 
Altamsh, 318. 
Alva, 266, 267. 
Alyattes, 34. 
Amalric, 178. 



Cape 



365. 



Amenhotep, 18. 
America, 256-261. 

Colonies in, 329, 334"33 6 - 

War of Independence, 335, 336. 

United States of, 335, 389-391, 

396, 402. 

S. and Central, 378, 388, 389. 

Amiens, Peace of, 359. 

Angevins, 196, 202. 

Anne, Queen, 310. 

Anglo-Japanese Treaty, 404. 

Antalcidas, Peace of, 59. 

Antigonus, 66. 

Antioch, 176. 

Antiochus, 66. 

Antonines, 115. 

Antonius, M. , 107, 108. 

Arabi, 399. 

Arabia, 132. 

Aragon, 164, 194, 213, 223, 234, 236. 

Aramaeans, 18, 20, 21. 

Arbela, 63. 

Areola, 354. 

Argos, 34. 

Arians, 122. 

Aristides, 54. 

Aristocracy, 32. 

Armada, 269. 

Armed Neutrality, 358. 

Armenia, 21. 

Arminius, 113. 

Arnulf, 155, 156. 

Arsacides, 93. 

Artemisium, 48. 

Aryans, 4, 5, 24, 27 ff., 41. 

Ashurbanipal, 24. 

Ashurnasirpal, 23. 

Asia Minor, 29, 93, 94. 

Asoka, 89, 316. 

Asshur, 16. 

Assyria, 18, 20-26. 

Atahualpa, 259. 

Athens, 35, 46-61, 89. 

Attalus, 95. 

Attila, 123I 

Augsburg Confession, 248. 

Interim, 251. 

409 



4io 



POLITICAL HISTORY 



Augsburg Peace, 252, 264. 
Augustus, 107-112. 

of Saxony, 307, 326. 

Aurangzib, 321. 
Aurelius, M. , 117. 
Austerlitz, 361. 
Australia, 392, 402. 
Austrasia, 145. 

Austria, 279, 299-302, 304, 327, 332-4, 
338, 35I-3S8, 360, 365. 380-387, 399- 
Austrian Succession, 326. 
Avars, 131, 147. 
Avignon, 209-211. 
Aztecs, 257. 

Babar, 287, 320. 

Babylon, 15 ff., 20-26, 37. 

Bacon, 288. 

Bagdad, 164, 184. 

Bairam, 320. 

Bajazet, 226. 

Balban, 318. 

Balkan Provinces, 398. 

Baldwin, 177-179. 

Bannockburn, 222. 

Barbarossa, Chaireddin, 249. 

Frederick, 179, 188-191. 

Barcelona, 194. 

Barras, 353. 

Basil II., 162. 

Bastille, 348. 

Bavaria, 207, 275, 298, 327. 

Bazaine, 386. 

Beachy Head, 297. 

Becket, 190, 200. 

Belgium, 376, 378, 400. 

Belgrade, 304, 325. 

Belisarius, 130. 

Benevento, 192. 

Bengal, 337. 

Ben-hadad, 21, 22. 

Berlin Congress, 399. 

Decree, 362. 

Bernadotte, 365. 

Bernard of Clairvaux, 178. 

Bismarck, 383, 384. 

Black Sea, 381. 

Blenheim, 300. 

Bliicher, 367. 

Boers, 401. 

Bohemia, 173, 206, 212, 224, 235, 249, 

273 ff - , 380. 
Bohemond, 176. 
Bomba, 382. 
Boniface vin., 208, 211. 
Borodino, 366. 
Bosnia, 398. 

Bourbons, 265, 271, 324, 325, 327, 367. 
Bouvines, 197. 



Boxer Rebellion, 403. 

Boyne, 297. 

Braganza, House of, 270, 282. 

Brahmans, 313. 

Brandenburg, 208, 278, 294, 295, 305 ; 

see Prussia. 
Brazil, 241,378, 388. 
Breitenfeld, 279. 
Bretigny, 218. 

Britain, Ancient, 104, 123, 140. 
Great, 311, 328-338, 351, 355, 

358, 363, 37i, 378, 381, 395- 404- 
British Empire, 391-394, 401. 
Bruce, Robert, 222. 
Brunswick, Ferdinand of, 333. 
Buddhism, 315. 
Bulgaria, 162, 186, 226, 398. 
Bulgars, 131. 
Burgundians, 123. 

Burgundy, 154, 214, 219, 221,229,234. 
Burmah, 93. 
Byng, 332. 
Byron, 378. 
Byzantium, 121 ; see Empire, Greek. 

Cabots, 261. 

Caesar, Julius, 103-108. 

Calais, 218, 255. 

Calcutta, 330. 

California, 390. 

Caligula, 113. 

Calvin, 252. 

Calvinists, 264, 266, 272, 274, 279. 

Cambyses, 37. 

Camillus, 74, 77. 

Camperdown, 354. 

Campo Formio, 352. 

Canaanites, 16. 

Canada, 281, 329, 334, 337, 391. 

Cannae, 86. 

Canute, 199. 

Cape of Good Hope, 240, 241. 

Cape Colony, 353, 393. 

Capet, 155, 157. 

Caracalla, 117. 

Carlos, Don, 379. 

Carlovingians, 153-155, 157. 

Carlowitz, 304. 

Carnot, 351, 354. 

Cartagena, 260. 

Carthage, 22, 33, 49, 50, 81-87, 95- 

Casimir, 224. 

Caste, 313, 315. 

Castile, 164, 194, 223, 234, 236. 

Catalonia, 194. 

Catharine de Medici, 263, 265. 

of Russia, 334, 338, 347, 351. 

of Aragon, 254. 

Catholic Emancipation, 360. 



INDEX 



411 



Catiline, 104. 
Caucasians, 4. 
Cavour, 382, 383. 
Celtic Church, 143. 
Celts, 6, 65, 66, 74, go. 
Chaeronea, 101. 
Chaireddin, Barbarossa, 249. 
Chaldeans, 21-26. 
Chandragupta, 66, 316. 
Charlemagne, 147-149. 
Charles Albert, 380. 

(Anjou), 193, 206. 

(Burgundy), 214, 221. 

the Bald, 154. 

(Emperor) iv., 207, 209. 

v., 234, 237, 246-252. 

vi., 298, 300-302, 325-327. 

vii., 327. 329- 

(England) 1., 280. 

11., 292, 293, 310. 

the Fat, 154. 

(France) VI., 219. 

vii., 220. 

viii., 235, 236. 

x.,377. 

Martel, 136, 146. 

(Spain) II., 298, 299. 

(Sweden) ix., 276. 

■ ■ x. , 305. 

xi., 305. 

xii., 301, 307-309, 325. 

Chatham, see Pitt, W. , 1. 

Chibchas, 257. 

Childeric, 146. 

China, 27, 42, 89, 229, 394, 395, 403. 

Chivalry, 230. 

Christianity, 115-122. 

Christina (Spain), 379. 

(Sweden), 305. 

Cicero, 104. 

Cid, 194. 

Cimbri, 100. 

Cimmerians, 24, 34. 

Cinna, 101. 

Cispadane Republic, 354. 

Citizenship (Roman), yj, 8o, 107, 117. 

Claudius, 113. 

Clement (Pope) vii., 246, 254. 

Clermont, Council of, 174. 

Clive, 330. 

Clovis, 129, 144. 

Code Napoleon, 359. 

Colbert, 291, 295, 322. 

Coligny, 265. 

Colonies, Greek, 32. 

Roman, 76, 81, 99. 

Modern, 281, 292, 335, 391 ; s 

British Empire. 
Columbus, 234, 241. 



Comitia, 75, 80, no. 

Committee of Public Safety, 3^2. 

Commodus, 117. 

Commonwealth, 280. 

Comneni, 174, 182. 

Conde\ 294. 

Confucius, 395. 

Congo, 400. 

Conrad, Emperor, 178, 188. 

Conradin, 192. 

Constance, Council of, 211. 

Constantine, 120. 

Constantinople, 121, 135, 183, 205, 226. 

Constituent Assembly, 349. 

Consuls, Roman, 71, 73, 77. 

Continental System, 362. 

Convicts, 392. 

Cook, Captain, 392. 

Copenhagen, 358, 363. 

Copernicus, 288. 

Cordova, 142. 

Gonsalvo di, 236. 

Corinth, 34. 

Coriolanus, 73. 

Corsica, 339. 

Cortes, 242, 257-259. 

Cossacks, 303. 

Courtrai, 217. 

Crassus, 102-105. 

Crecy, 218. 

Crete, 19, 30, 303. 

Crimea, 81. 
J Croesus, 34, 36. 
! Cromwell, 280, 284, 292. 
j Crusades, 173-185. 

Cuba, 402. 

Cuneiform writing, 15, 18. 

Custom and law, 8. 

Cyaxares, 25. 

Cynoscephalae, 94. 

Cyrus the Great, 28, 36. 

Minor, 58. 

Damascus, 21, 22. 
Danelagh, 150, 156. 
Danes, 150, 156. 
Danton, 349, 352. 
Dantzig, 225. 
Darius Hystaspis, 38, 47. 

: 11., 63. 

David, 19. 

Deccan, 317, 319, 321. 

Decemvirs, 76. 

Decius, 117. 

Decretals, forged, 147. 

Delhi, 318. 

Delian League, 54. 

Delphi, 51. 

Demetrius Poliorcetes, 66. 



4T2 



POLITICAL HISTORY 



Democracy, 35. 

Demosthenes, 61. 

Denmark, 173, 225, 276, 305, 307, 358, 

363. 384. 
De Ruyter, 294. 
Diadochi, 65. 
Diaz, Bartholomew, 241. 
Diet, German, 245-248. 
Diocletian, 118. 
Directory, the, 353, 355. 
Discoveries, maritime, 240. 
Domitian, 114. 
Dorians, 30. 
Drama, 55. 
Dravidians, 28. 
Dresden, 366. 
Duncan, admiral, 354. 
Dunkirk, 284. 
Dynastic Wars, 325. 

East India Company, 322, 330, 337, 

394- 
Ecclesiastical Reservations, 252. 
Edessa, 176, 178. 
Edward I., 181 , 202, 222. 

in., 217. 

Egmont, 266. 

Egypt, 4, 12-15, l8 " 20 - 2 4-26, 37, 56, 

81, 105-109, 164, 178, 181, 354-356, 

377. 399- 

Elam, 16, 17, 21. 

Elba, 366, 367. 

Electors (Empire), 193, 245. 

Elizabeth (England), 254, 264, 268-270. 

(Russia), 328, 331, 334. 

Empire, Roman, 109-123. 

Byzantine, 130, 131, 135-137, 142, 

153, 162, 173, 182, 205, 226. 

Holy Roman, 147-149, 153-156, 

158-162, 187-194, 203, 206-208, 245- 
248, 250-252, 264, 272, 275-279, 362. 

Enghien, Due d', 360. 

England, 144, 161, 173, 196, 198-203, 
217-220, 222, 223, 235, 253, 254, 264, 
279-281, 284, 292, 293, 296-299, 301 
302, 309-312 ; see Britain. , 

Epaminondas, 59. 

Equites, 99. 

Erasmus, 239. 

Eridu, 16. 

Eugene, 299-301. 

Euphrates, 3, 8. 

Eylau, 362. 

Etruscans, 43, 49, 71-73. 

Family Compact, 325. 
Fashoda, 400. 
Fatimides, 165. 
Federals, 390. 



Ferdinand (Aragon), 236. 

(Brunswick), 333. 

(Emperor) I., 249, 251, 255. 

II., 274, 277. 

(Spain) vii., 376, 379. 

Feudalism, 152, 168, 371. >- -~~ 

First Consul, 356. 

Flamininus, 94. 

Flanders, 217, 219. 

Flavian Emperors, 113, 114. 

Flemings, 217. 

Fleury, 325. 

Flodden, 237. 

Florence, 204, 214. 

Forty-five, the, 329. 

France, 148, 195-198, 203, 209, 216-221, 
235, 263, 265-267, 270-272, 275, 279, 
282-285, 292-302, 328-334, 336, 339, 
340, 347-368, 377, 379, 381, 382, 385, 
386, 399- 

Francis (Emperor) 1. , 329. 

11., 347, 360. 

(France) 1., 237, 245, 246, 250. 

Franco-German War, 386. 

Franconia, 148, 156, 159. 

Frankfort, 380. 

Franks, 123, 129, 144-148. 

Frederick (Denmark), 307. 

■ (Emperor) I., 179, 188-191. 

11., 180, 191, 192. 

in., 213, 234. 

(Palatinate), 274. 

(Prussia) I., 327. 

■ 11., 326-329, 331, 338, 339. 

(Saxony), 247. 

William (Prussia) I., 327. 

".. 347,549- 

■ — — in.. 360, 362. 

(Brandenburg), 294, 305, 327. 

Free Cities, 189. 

Friars, 192, 210, 230. 

Friedrichshalle, 309. 

Friedland, 362. 

Fronde, 284. 

Galba, 113. 

Gama, Vasco da, 241. 

Garibaldi, 383. 

Gaul, 104. 

Gauls, 66, 74. 

Genghis Khan, 229, 318. 

George I., 211. 

II., 328. 

Hi., 347, 360. 

German Empire (New), 386, 403. 

(Old) ; see Holy Roman 

Empire. 

Confederation, ' 376, 379, 380, 

383. 384. 



INDEX 



4i3 



German (North) Federation, 85. 

King, 55. 

Germans, 113; see Teutons. 

Ghazni Dynasty, 165, 317. 

Ghibellines, 188, 192, 206. 

Ghori Dynasty, 317. 

Gibraltar, 301, 302. 

Girondins, 349, 351. 

Goa, 320. 

Godfrey de Bouillon, 176. 

Goldfields, 392, 401. 

Gordon, C. G. , 400. 

Goths, 117, 122, 123, 129, 140. 

Gracchi, 97-99. 

Granada, 236. 

Granicus, 63. 

Gravelotte, 381. 

Greece (Ancient) ; see Hellenes. 

(Modern), 377, 378. 

Greek Church, 136, 143, 225. 
Greeks, see Hellenes. 
Greenland, 240. 
Gregory I., 143, 210. 

11., 143- 

vii., 152, 160, 161, 187, 210. 

ix., 192. 

Guelfs, 188, 192, 206. 
Guiscards, 161. 
Guises, 265, 267, 271. 
Gustavus Adolphus, 276-279. 
Gustavus Vasa, 237. 

Hadrian (Emperor), 114. 

(Pope) iv., 188, 189, 202. 

Hamilcar, 83. 

Hamites, 4, 41. 

Hammurabi, 16. 

Hannibal, 84-87. 

Hanover, 321, 322, 362, 385. 

Hanoverian Succession, 311. 

Hansa, 225. 

Hapsburgs, 194, 208, 212, 233-235, 

275, 277, 287. 
Harun al Raschid, 135. 
Hasdrubal, 86. 
Hastings (battle of), 199. 

(Warren), 337. 

Hawke, 334. 

Hebrews, 13, 16, 19, 22, 26. 

Hellenes, 6, 19, 29-35, 50-52, 94- 

Hellespont, 48. 

Henry (Emperor) III., 159. 

iv., 160, 161, 187. 

v., 187. 

vi., 180, 191. 

VII. , 206. 

(England) 11., 190, 196, 200. 

v., 219. 

viii., 237, 246, 253. 



Henry the Fowler, 156, 157. 

(France) 11., 251, 263. 

in.," 267, 271. 

iv., 267, 271-273. 

— — the Lion, 191. 

the Navigator, 224. 

Heraclius, 132, 135. 

Herodotus, 46. 

Hildebrand, see Gregory vii. — * "* 

Himera, 50, 7^. 

Hinduism, 316, 317. 

Hindustan, 28. 

Hittites, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20. 

Hoche, 354. 

Hohenlinden, 358. 

Hohenstaufen, 188-193. 

Hohenzollern, 208. 

Holland, 281, 293-295, 298, 302, 352 

365, 376, 378, 393- 
Holy Alliance, 376, 377. 
Hong-Kong, 95. 
Honorius (Emperor), 122. 
Hortensian Law, 78. 
Hospitallers, Knights, 178, 182. 
Hugh (Capet), 155, 157. 
Huguenots, 263, 265-267, 271, 275, 281, 

296. 
Humayun, 320. 

Hundred Years' War, 218-220. 
Hungary, 158, 207, 212, 224, 227, 235, 

249. 2 77, 3°4. 3 28 > 38o, 387. 
Huns, 122, 123. 
Hunyadi Janos, 213, 226. 
Huss, 212. 
Hyksos, 13, 14, 16. 

Iceland, 240. 

Iconium, 165, 174. 

Iconoclasts, 135-137. 

Illyria, 33. 

Image worship, 136. 

Imperial Chamber, 245, 272. 

Incas, 257, 259, 260. 

India, 27, 38, 42, 66, 89, 169, 230, 287, 

313-322, 330, 337, 370, 393. 
Indulgences, 238, 246. 
Indulgents, 352. 
Industrial Revolution, 371. 
Innocent ill., 191. 

xi., 296. 

Interior of Augsburg, 251. 

Interregnum (German), 193. 

Investitures, 161, 187. 

Ionic Revolt, 46. 

Ireland, 202. 

Irene, 137, 147. 

Isabella (Castile), 236, 241. 

(Spain), 379, 385. 

Isaurian Emperors, 135-137. 



414 



POLITICAL HISTORY 



Islam, 132-136, 141, 151, 163-166, 205. 

Israel, see Hebrews. 

Issus, 63. 

Italians, 6, 71. 

Italy, 188-192, 204, 213, 214, 235, 236, 

285, 298-300, 353, 354, 361, 362, 365, 

376, 381-386. 
Ivan ill., 225. 
Ivan IV., 276. 

Jacquerie, 219. 
Jacobins, 349, 351. 
Jacobites, 311, 329. 
Jagellons, 224. 
James I., 270, 275. 

II., 296, 310. 

Japan, 395-397, 4°3"405- 

Jehangir, 321. 

Jena, 362. 

Jeroboam, 20. 

Jerome Bonaparte, 362. 

Jerome of Prague, 212. 

Jerusalem, kingdom of, 177-18 1. 

Jervis, Admiral, 354. 

Jesuits, 253, 296. 

Jews, 113, 116, 216 ; see ' Hebrews.' 

Joan of Arc, 220. 

John (England), 201. 

Jugurtha, 99. 

Julius (Pope) 11., 239. 

Justinian, 130, 131. 

Kaliphs, 133-135, 164, 184; (Western), 

142, 163, 194. 
Kalmar, Union of, 225. 
Kassites, 17, 18, 20, 21. 
Katharine, see Catharine. 
Kaunitz, 331. 
Khartum, 400. 
Khatti, see Hittites. 
Khiljis, 318. 
Khublai Khan, 229. 
Kiuprili, 303. 
Knight's War, 247. 
Knox, 264. 
Kolin, 333. 
Koniggratz, 384. 
Korea, 403, 404. 
Kossuth, 380. 
Kutb ed-din, 318. 

Labour, division of, 8. 
Labrador, 240, 261. 
Lacedaemon, see Sparta. 
Ladislaus Posthumus, 213. 
Lagos, 334. 
La Hogue, 297. 
Langobards, see Lombards. 
Latins, 6, 43, 71,72. !39- 



Latin Church, 143. 

Latin Empire, 180. 

Latin Kingdom, 177-181. 

Latin League, 71 , 78. 

Law and Custom, 8. 

League (Catholic), 271. 

Lechfeld, 158. 

Legano, 190. 

Legislative Assembly, 349. 

Leipzig, 366. 

Leo (Emperor) ill., 135. 

(Pope) in., 147. 

x., 239, 247. 

Leoben, 354. 

Leonidas, 48. 

Leopold (Belgium) I., 378. 

Leopold (Emperor) I., 293, 304. 

".. 347.349- 

Lepanto, 277. 

Leuctra, 59. 

Leuthen, 333. 

Lewis (Bavaria), 207, 209. 

Lewis the German, 154. 

Libya, 20. 

Licinian Laws, 76. 

Ligny, 367. 

Lincoln, Abraham, 391. 

Lithuania, 224. 

Liutprand, 146. 

Lodi, bridge of, 353. 

Lodi dynasty, 319. 

Lollards, 212, 253. 

Lombards, 129, 130, 142, 146. 

Lombard League, 189. 

Lombardy, 189, 354. 

Lorraine, 283, 285, 327, 386. 

Lothar, 154. 

Louis Bonaparte, 362, 365. 

Louis (France) VI., 196. 

vii., 178, 196. 

ix., 181, 197. 

xi., 214, 220. 

xii., 215, 236. 

xiil, 275. 

xiv., 283, 285, 291-302. 

xv., 301. 

xvi., 340, 349-35 1 - 

xviii., 375, 377- 

Louis Philippe, 377, 379. 
Louis the Pious-, 154. 
Louisiana, 329. 
Louvois, 297. 
Loyola, Ignatius, 253. 
Ltibeck, 225. 
Lucullus, 103. 
Lun£ville, 358. 
Luther, 239, 246-248, 251. 
I Lutherans, 252, 264, 272, 274. 
[ Liitzen, 279. 



INDEX 



4i5 



Luxembourg Emperors, 206 ff. 
Lydia, 25, 28, 30, 34. 
Lysander, 58. 

Maccabees, 94. 

Macedon, 60, 66, 93-95. 

Magadha, 316. 

Magdeburg, 278. 

Magelhaens, 241. 

Magenta, 382. 

Magna Carta, 201. 

Magnesia, 94. 

Magyars, 158, 173; see Hungary. 

Mahabharata, 315. 

Mahdi, 399. 

Mahmud of Ghazni, 165, 317. 

Mahrattas, 321, 393. 

Maintenon, Mme. de, 295. 

Majuba, 401. 

Malplaquet, 301. 

Malta, 355. 

Mamelukes, 185, 249. 

Mamun, 164. 

Manchuria, 405. 

Manchus, 394. 

Manetho, 12. 

Manfred, 192. 

Mantinea, 59. 

Manu, 315. 

Marat, 349, 352. 

Marathas, see Mahrattas. 

Marathon, 47. 

Marengo, 358. 

Maria (Portugal), 379. 

Maria Teresa, 326-329, 331, 332. 

Marignano, 237. 

Marius, 100-102. 

Marlborough, Duke of, 299, 300. 

Martin v., 211. 

Mary Stuart, 264, 269. 

Mary Tudor, 254. 

Masinissa, 95. 

Mass£na, 365. 

Massilia, 33. 

Matthias Corvinus, 213, 227, 235. 

Matthias (Emperor), 274. 

Maurice (Emperor), 132. 

of Nassau, 269. 

of Saxony, 251. 

Maximilian (Bavaria), 275, 277. 
— — (Emperor) I., 233, 237. 

11., 272. 

Mayas, 257. 
Mazarin, 284. 
Mazzini, 382. 
Mecca, 132. 
Medes, 24-26, 28, 37. 
Medicis, 214. 
Mehemet All, 377. 



Meneptah, 19. 

Merovingians, 145. 

Mesopotamia, 15 ; see Babylon and 

Assyria. 
Metaurus, 86. 
Metternich, 375, 378. 
Metz, 386. 

Mexico, 242, 257-259, 385, 389. 
Miguel, Don, 379. ~ 
Mikado, 396. 

Milan, 189, 214, 236, 245, 246, 298. 
Milvian Bridge, 120. 
Minden, 333. 
Minorca, 302, 338. 
Mirabeau, 348. 
Mitani, 18-20. 
Mithridates, 100-103. 
Moguls, 287, 320-322, 337. 
Mohacs, 249. 
Mohammed, 132, 133. 
Mohammed Shah, 319. 
Mohammedanism, see Islam. 
Monarchy, 8, 31. 
Monasteries, 254. 
Monasticism, 168. 
Mongols, 4, 41, 130, 181, 184, 224, 

229, 394. 
Monroe doctrine, 402. 
Montecuculi, 294. 
Montenegro, 399. 
Montenotte, 353. 
Montezuma, 258. 
Montfort, 201. 
Moore, Sir John, 363. 
Moors, 141, 142, 147, 163, 194, 236. 
Moravia, 163. 
Moreau, 358. 
Morgarten, 221. 
Morosini, 303. 
Moscow, 366. 
Mountain, the, 349, 351. 
Munda, 106. 
Mutiny, Indian, 393. 
Mycenae, 29. 

Nabonidus, 26. 

Nabopolassar, 26. 

Nadir Shah, 322. 

Nancy, 221. 

Nantes, edict of, 272, 296. 

Naples, 213, 235, 245, 300, 354, 356, 
377, 382. 

Napoleon I., 339, 352-356; (first Con- 
sul), 35 6 -359; (Emperor), 359-368. 

ill., 381, 382, 385, 386. 

Naram Sin, 16. 

Narses, 130. 

Narva, 307. 

National Assembly, 348. 



416 



POLITICAL HISTORY 



National Convention, 350. 

National Guard, 348. 

Nationalism, 364, 376, 382, 398. 

Navarino, 378. 

Navarre, 194. 

Nebuchadnezzar, 21, 26. 

Nelson, 355, 361. 

Nero, 113. 

Netherlands, 262, 266-269 ; (Spanish), 

283, 292, 302 ; (Austrian), 302 ; see 

Belgium and Holland. 
Neustria, 145. 
Neutrality, Armed, 358. 
New England, 281. 
Newfoundland, 240. 
New South Wales, 392. 
New Zealand, 392. 
Nice, 382. 

Nicholas, Tsar, 378. 
Nile, 3, 8, 355. 
Nineveh, 18. 
Nimeguen, 295. 
Nomads, 7. 
Normandy, 151. 
Normans, 161, 200. 
North German Federation, 385. 
Northmen, 150, 156, 240. 
Norway, 225. 

Nova Scotia, 281, 302, 329. 
Numantia, 95. 
Numidia, 95, 99. 
Nuremburg, 250. 

Occam, William of, 210. 
Octavius, see Augustus. 
Odoacer, 123, 129. 
Oldenburgs, 237. 
Oligarchy, 32. 
Omar, 134. 

Ommayads, 135, 142, 163. 
Orange, William of, I., 266, 268. 

II., 281. 

in., 281, 293-299, 310. 

Orleans (Regent), 325. 
Othman, 135. 
Otho, 113. 
Ottokar, 206. 
Ottos, 151, 156-159- 
Ottomans, 205, 226; see Turks. 
Oudenarde, 301. 

Pacific Ocean, 256. 
Palaeologi, 226. 
Palatinate, 272, 274. 
Palestine, 165 ; see Hebrews, Crusades. 
Panama, 260. 
Panipat, 320. 

Papacy, 142, 143,146, 151, 158-161,175, 
188-192, 204, 208-212, 238-240, 296. 



Paris, 348, 353, 368, 386. 
Parliament, 201, 202, 255, 281, 378. 
Parma, Alexander of, 262, 268, 269, 

271. 
Parthia, 65, 103, 105, 114. 
Partition Treaties, 298. 
Passaro, 325. 
Passarowitz, 305. 
Passau, 252. 
Patricians, 72, 75. 
Paul (Pope) 11., 251. 
Paul (Tsar) 1., 355, 358. 
Pavia, 246. 
Peasants' War, 247. 
Peloponnesian War, 56-58. 
Peninsular War, 363, 364. 
Pepin, 146. 
Pergamus, 65, 93. 
Pericles, 55, 57. 
Perseus, 94. 

Persia, 36-39, 118, 131, 134, 302, 394. 
Persian War, 47-49, 54 ; see Alexander 

the Great. 
Persians, 28. 
Peru, 257, 259, 260. 
Peter the Great, 304, 306-309. 
Peter the Hermit, 174. 
Peterborough, Lord, 301. 
Peterwardein, 304. 
Pharnaces, 105. 
Pharsalia, 105. 

Philip (Burgundy) II., 233, 236. 
Philip (France) Augustus, 179, 196. 

iv., 209, 216. 

v., 216. 

vi., 216. 

Philip (Macedon) II., 60, 61. 

v., 93. 

Philip (Spain) 11., 251, 255, 262, 263, 

266-271. 

v., 299, 302. 

Philippi, 108. 

Philippines, 403. 

Philistines, 19. 

Phoenicians, 22, 63 ; see Carthage. 

Piedmont, 353. 

Pisa, Council of, 211. 

Pisistratus, 36. 

Pitt, William, I., 332, 334. 

n., 348, 360, 361. 

Pius V. , 264. 

Pius IX., 380. 

Pizarro, 259, 260. 

Plataea, 49, 57. 

Plebs, 72, 75. 

Podiebrad, George, 213. 

Poictiers, 218. 

Poland, 224, 276, 304, 317, 326, 338, 

35*. 353- 363, ;-75- 378. 



INDEX 



4i7 



Poles, 163, 183 ; see Poland. 

Polish Succession War, 326. 

Pompadour, Mme. de, 331. 

Pompeius, 102-105. 

Pontus, 65, 93. 

Port Arthur, 404. 

Portugal, 195, 223, 242, 270, 282, 363, 

364, 378, 379, 388. 
Praetorians, 111. 
Prague, 338. 

Pragmatic Sanction, 327. 
Principate (Roman), 109. 
Proconsul, 97, no. 
Protestants, 248, 264. 
Provence, 158, 206, 214. 
Provinces, Roman, 96, 107. 
Primitive Man, 6. 
Prussia, 305, 326-329, 33t-334. 33 8 . 

35*. 353- 360-364, 366, 375. 380, 383- 

387 ; see Brandenburg. 
Prussians, 183. 
Psammetichus, 25. 
Ptolemies, 65, 73. 
Publicani, 97. 
Pultawa, 308. 
Punic Wars, 82-87, 95- 
Punjab, 316, 393. 
Pydna, 94. 
Pyramids, 13. 
Pyrenees Treaty, 284. 
Pyrrhus, 66, 79. 

Quebec, 334. 
Quiberon, 334. 

Races, 4, 41. 

Radetzky, 380. 

Rajputs, 315. 

Ralegh, 276. 

Rameses, 19, 20. 

Ramillies, 300. 

Ravenna, 130, 142. 

Ratisbon, 250. 

Records, 12. 

Red Indians, 256, 348. 

Reform Act, 378. 

Reformation, 210, 212, 234, 238-240, 

244-255, 288. 
Regulus, 83. 
Renaissance, 205. 
Rend, 214. 
Representation, 202. 
Responsible Government, 391. 
Restitution, Edict of, 278. 
Reunions, the, 295. 
Revolution : English, 296, 310. 

February, 379. 

French, 339, 340, 347-353- 

Industrial, 371. 



Revolution : July, 377, 378. 

Year of, 379. 

Rhine, 283, 293. 

Confederation, 365. 

Rhodes, 249. 

Richard I., 179, 196. 

Richelieu, 275, 278, 282, 284. 

Rights of Man, 339. 

Rivoli, 354. 

Robespierre, 349, 352. 

Rodney, 336. 

Rollo, 156. 

Rome, 70-126, 142, 383, 386 ; see 
Papacy. 

Romulus, 71. 

Roon, Albert von, 384. 

Rosbach, 333. 

Roses, War of, 223. 

Rouen, 165. 

Roumania, 399. 

Rubicon, 105. 

Rudolf of Hapsburg, 194, 206. 

Rurik, 162. 

Russia, 225, 276, 304, 306, 328, 338, 
347, 35i, 355> 360-362, 365, 366, 375, 
378, 381, 394. 398, 403-405- 

Russians, 162, 183. 

Ryswick, Treaty of, 298. 

Sabellians, 43, 71, 72, 78. 

Sadowa, 384. 

Safavids, 303. 

St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, 267. 

St. Helena, 368. 

St. John, Knights of, 178, 182, 

249. 
St. Lawrence, 329. 
St. Vincent, 354. 
Saladin, 179. 
Salamis, 49. 
Salic Law, 216. 
Samnites, 78. 
Samurai, 396. 

Saracens, see Islam, Moors, Crusades. 
Sardanapalus, 25. 
Sardinia, 302, 353, 380, 382. 
Sargon, 16. 
Sassanids, 118. 
Satrapies, 38. 
Savonarola, 239. 
Savoy, 229, 297, 299, 302, 350, 382 ; 

see Sardinia. 
Saxony, 151, 156, 191, 239, 247, 251, 

272, 278, 332. 
Scharnhorst, 364. 
Schism, the Great, 207, 211. 
Schleswig, 384, 385. 
Schmalkald League, 248, 250, 251. 
Scipios, 86, 95. 



2 D 



4i8 



POLITICAL HISTORY 



Scotland, 173, 199, 203, 222, 244, 264, 

270, 279, 311. 
Scythians, 6, 24, 37. 
Sebastopol, 381. 
Sedan, 386. 
Seleucidae, 65. 
Selim, 248. 

Seljuk Turks, 165, 174, 205. 
Semites, 4, 5, 13, 15, 41. 
Sempach, 221. 
Senate, 77, 80, 97, no. 
Sennacherib, 20, 24. 
September Massacres, 350. 
Serfdom, 169, 497. 
Sertorius, 102. 
Servia, 216, 398. 
Sesostris, see Rameses. 
Seven Weeks' War, 384. 
Seven Years' War, 326, 331-334- 
Severus, 117. 
Sforzas, 214. 
Shah Jehan, 321. 
Shalmaneser, 22. 
Sher Shah, 320. 
Shiites, 134. 
Shimon oseki, 403. 
Shishak, 20. 
Shoguns, 396. 
Sicily, 33, 48, 49, 73, 79. 82, 96, 173, 

191-193. 2I 3- 383- 
Sicilian Expedition, 58. 

Vespers, 213. 

Sieyes, 356. 

Sigismund (Emperor), 207, 212, 226. 

(Poland), 276. 

Sikhs, 393. 

Silesia, 328, 329. 

Sindh, 393. 

Sivaji, 321. 

Slaves, 35, 55, 74, 126, 260, 390, 393. 

Slavs, 6, 131, 162. 

Skanderbeg, 226. 

Sobieski, John, 304. 

Social War, 100. 

Socialists, 379. 

Socii, 77, 81, 100. 

Solferino, 382. 

Solomon, 20. 

Solon, 35. 

Soudan, 99. 

Spain, 83, 95, 135, 163, 194. 204, 223, 

234, 236, 255, 262, 266-270, 282, 284, 

295, 298-302, 328, 363, 364, 376, 378, 

379. 385, 402. 
Spanish Succession, 298-302, 326. 
Sparta, 34, 46-61, 67, 75. 
Spartacus, 103. 
Spires, 248. 
Stanislaus Leczinski, 308, 325, 326. 



States General, 340, 348. 

Steam, 371. 

Stein, 364. 

Stilicho, 122. 

Strafford, 280. 

Stralsund, 278. 

Suleiman, 249. 

Sulla, 100-102, 

Sully, 272. 

Sumerians, 4, 15. 

Sunnites, 134. 

Suvarov, 356. 

Sweden, 237, 276, 278, 279, 293, 305, 

307. 365- 
Swiss, 221. 

Switzerland, 248, 252, 282, 356. 
Syracuse, 58, 82. 
Syria, 21, 22, 355. 

Taipings, 395. 

Taj Mahal, 321. 

Talleyrand, 375. 

Tamerlane, 226, 319. 

Tancred, 177. 

Taoism, 395. 

Tarentum, 79. 

Tarquin, 72. 

Tartars, see Mongols. 

Taxation (Roman), 96. 

Tell el-Amarna letters, 18, 20. 

Templars, 178, 182, 216. 

Terror, Reign of, 348-351. 

Teutones, 100. 

Teutonic Knights, 184, 224, 225. 

Teutons, 6, 100, 113, 117, 123, 139. 

Thapsus, 106. 

Thebes, 59. 

Themistocles, 47, 54. 

Theoderic, 129. 

Theodosius, 121. 

Thermidor, 352. 

Thermopylae, 48. 

Thirty Years' War, 274-279. 

Thothmes III., 15. 

Thracians, 33. 

Thucydides, 56. 

Tiberias, battle of, 179. 

Tiberius, in, 112. 

Tiglath-Pileser, 23. 

Tilly, 277. 

Tilsit, 362. 

Timur, 226. 

Titus, 113. 

Toltecs, 257. 

Torres Vedras, 365. 

Totila, 130. 

Toulon, 352. 

Toulouse, 197. 

Tours, 146. 



INDEX 



419 



Trafalgar, 361. 

Trajan, 114. 

Transylvania, 277, 303. 

Transvaal, 393, 401. 

Trasimene, 86. 

Trebia, 85. 

Trebizond, 183. 

Trent, Council of, 252. 

Tribes (Roman), 75. 

Tribunate, 75, 99, no. 

Triple Alliance, 293. 

Troy, 29. 

Tudors, 235. 

Tughlaks, 319. 

Turenne, 284, 294. 

Turks, 151, 165, 205 ; in Europe, 226, 

248, 249, 277, 303-305, 317, 320, 376, 

377. 38i, 398, 399- 
Tuscany, 327. 
Twelve Tables, 76. 
Tyrants, 32. 
Tyre, 22, 63. 

Ulm, 361. 

Union, Great Britain, 311. 

Union of South Africa, 402. 

United Provinces, 269 ; see Holland. 

United States, see America. 

Urartu, 21. 

Urban II., 175. 

Ushant, 352. 

Utrecht, Peace of, 302. 

Union of, 268. 

Vandals, 122, 123, 130, 140. 

Veii, 74. 

Vendue, 352. 

Venice, 183, 189, 204, 215, 246, 303, 

354, 382, 383, 385. 
Verdun, 154. 
Vervins, 272. 
Vespasian, 113. 

Victor Emmanuel, 380, 382, 383. 
Vienna, 249, 304, 361. 

Congress, 366, 375. 

Vikings, 150. 



Villafranca, 382. 
Virginia, 270, 281. 
Visconti, 214, 236. 
Vitellius, 113. 
Vittoria, 364. 
Volsci, 73. 
Voyages, 240-242, 261. 

Wagram, 365. 
Wallenstein, 277-279. 
Walpole, 325, 326. 
Wandewash, 331, 334. 
Warsaw, 362. 
Washington, George, 336. 
Waterloo, 367. 
Wellington, 363, 365-367. 
Wenzel, 207, 212. 
Westphalia, 362. 

Peace of, 279, 281. 

White Mountain, 275. 
William (Emperor) I., 383. 

(England) I., 199. 

in., 281, 293-299, 310. 

(Orange) I. , 266, 268. 

11., 281. 

in., 281, 293-299, 310. 

Witan, 201. 

Witt, John de, 281, 294. 

Wolfe, 324, 353. 

Wolsey, 237. 

Worms, Concordat of, 188. 

Diet of, 247. 

Wycliffe, 210, 212, 253. 

Xenophon, 59. 
Xerxes, 47-49. 



Yesdigerd, 



[30. 



I Zacharias (Pope), 146. 

Zama, 86. 
\ Zenta, 304. 

Zisca, 212. 

Zollverein, 385. 

Zulus, 401. 
I Zwingli, 248. 



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